One local organization told NBC 7’s Shelby Bremer that they haven’t seen a single migrant in more than a month.
As crossings at the United States-Mexico border have plummeted under President Donald Trump, aid organizations in San Diego said they’ve shifted their focus from assisting migrants with so few now arriving.
“It’s a dramatic, dramatic change from a year ago,” said Adriana Jasso of the American Friends Service Committee, which has been stationed at the border in San Ysidro since 2023.
The organization has been set up at a gate called Whiskey 8, where many migrants have caught their first glimpse of the U.S., arriving to present themselves for asylum and wait to be picked up by Border Patrol.
“Historically we’ve been here to provide humanitarian support to the people waiting,” Jasso said. “It could be something as simple as handing through the fence a bottle of water or an apple to something as complicated as calling 911.”
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Jasso said they haven’t seen a single migrant since a group of about 20 people from Brazil, India and China arrived on Feb. 15.
“Some of them said, you know, ‘It took me three months to be here. It took me a month and a half. I thought I was going to be able to get here before the incoming administration,’” Jasso recounted. “One of the consistent asks that we got from the group and a few other groups was, ‘Am I still on time? Am I too late?’”
The organization has since dismantled two of its three aid tents at the gate, after a recent rainstorm toppled them – though they were already thinking about taking them down as crossings have fallen.
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There were 11,709 encounters at the Southwest Border in February, according to data from Customs and Border Protection, which is just 6% of the 189,913 seen in February 2024.
Hundreds of members of the military deployed to the border in the days immediately after Trump took office have been placing concertina wire on the fence as a deterrent. Bundles of it were lying on the ground Monday, waiting to be installed.
“That seems to be consistent with the promise of the new president or the new administration,” Jasso said. “They promised that they would do anything and everything to keep people away.”
Jasso said she worried people will choose more covert, dangerous ways to enter the U.S.
“Although we don't see people here or although we don't have contact, we know that historically these are regions where people will find a way,” she said.
The organization has taken much of its supplies elsewhere, like to shelters in Tijuana. But Jasso said they’re not closing up shop entirely yet and that their mission remained the same.
“We were able to provide a welcome and a smile, and that made a huge difference for many of them,” she said.
At least two other organizations in San Diego — Jewish Family Service and Catholic Charities — have announced layoffs in their migrant service programs.
