Supervisor Jim Desmond Sunday complained about U.S. border agents' continuing practice of dropping off migrants from the Mexico border in the San Diego County area.
"This morning, I visited the Oceanside transit station and witnessed Border Patrol officials drop off over 20 migrants. Nearly 7,000 migrants have been dropped in San Diego in the past 10 days alone. The County of San Diego can only do so much, and our resources are stretched to their limits," Desmond wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"I want to thank our local non-profit organizations for stepping up to help process and assist them on their journey, but our immigration system is broken. Dropping people at various transit stations without resources is neither humane for San Diegans nor the migrants," he continued.
"We need comprehensive immigration reform. Our border is in chaos, and we need a stronger, more humane system."
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San Diego's leaders have been speaking out against the policy in recent weeks. The cited cause of the drop-offs is an attempt to clear a space between two U.S.-Mexico border fences where hundreds of migrants, asylum- seekers and refugees had been camping, according to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The drop-offs have overwhelmed nonprofits, such as Jewish Family Service, which runs the shelter system for the San Diego Rapid Response Network, a coalition that supports asylum seekers arriving in San Diego.
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"Effective immediately and going forward, the shelter will limit arrivals only to the most vulnerable asylum seekers released by DHS, including those with medical conditions, families, pregnant people, LGBTQI, older adults, etc., as space allows," a statement from the nonprofit said earlier this month.
County Supervisor Joel Anderson penned a letter to President Joe Biden asking for assistance.
"Receiving assistance from the federal government to process the asylum seekers entering San Diego and immediately halting the lateral transfer of asylum seekers from other states will allow us to better address this continuing humanitarian crisis without adding to our region's existing homelessness crisis," he wrote.
According to Anderson's letter, the San Diego Rapid Response Network has served more than 157,000 people with shelter and other humanitarian aid since the Department of Homeland Security began releasing hundreds of migrant families onto San Diego's streets in the fall of 2018.
"We expect an unknown number of individuals to be released by DHS directly into our community, left at transit centers throughout the region to fend for themselves," Anderson wrote. "This is neither safe nor fair to San Diego County residents nor to the those seeking refuge in our border county."
