Dozens — or sometimes hundreds — of migrants pass through private property along the California-Mexico border every day, according to local landowners who say they feel helpless as human caravans cut through their land.
“If I had the money, I’d build my own wall here!” Jacumba Hot Springs resident Brian Silvas told CNN.
The US-Mexico border wall ends a few feet into his 78-acre property, which is about 75 miles east of San Diego, and every day he watches immigrants cross his land.
“Sometimes there are large groups of men and women, and I don’t want them to come through here,” he said.
“This country was built on immigration. I’m fine with that,” Silvas continued. “But not like this. This doesn’t make sense.”
San Diego Border Patrol agents intercepted more than 230,000 immigrants in the 2023 fiscal year that ended in September, according to US Customs and Border Protection data, the highest in decades.
By comparison, the sector had 176,000 encounters last year and only 53,000 in 2020.
A group of asylum seekers sit in a tent, made of tree branches, after arriving at a temporary camp near the Jacumba Hot Springs Desert, an unincorporated area in San Diego, California on September 26, 2023. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“It’s time to close the border to new immigration,” San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond said during a press conference on border security on October 26.
His statement was in response to a leaked Customs and Border Protection memo from the San Diego Field Office that stated “individuals inspired by, or in response to, the current Israel-Hamas conflict” may cross into the US via the southern border.
About five miles east of the Silvas’ home, also along the border, Jerry and Maria Shuster, are also experiencing migrant anxiety, which they feel powerless to stop.
A group of asylum seekers light a campfire to warm themselves at night after arriving at a temporary camp near the Jacumba Hot Springs Desert after they crossed the border between Mexico and the United States in San Diego on September 26, 2023. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“The government should do something [to] stop this illegal immigration,” said Maria Shuster, to CNN. “Stop because [the migrants aren’t] help us; they destroy us.”
“Immigrants have more rights than us,” he added.
The Shusters have lived in Jacumba Hot Springs for over 40 years.
The couple regularly sees migrants camping on their 17-acre property. Tents, clothes and trash are often left behind. One group dismantled the couple’s fence to use for firewood, Jerry Shuster said.
“[My trees] everything is gone,” he told CNN. “They cut it up and put it in the fire.”
Meanwhile, Silvas questioned what role Border Patrol agents play, likening them to personal drivers for immigrants.
“Border Patrol agents, I know that they didn’t sign up to be Uber, because that’s all they are now,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
