San Diego International Airport has been flooded with migrants waiting for flights out of the area – with more than 300 hunkered down there last week, including some who sat on the floor for days.
“It’s growing by leaps and bounds, and we’re not entirely sure why,” Krystle Johnson, a volunteer with We All We Got, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“It almost became a moment [migrant welcome] center because there are so many people there,” he said of the airport.
Volunteers say the situation has worsened in recent weeks.
Roni Elias, another volunteer for We All We Got, said the organization usually brings 50 sandwiches and food packs to immigrants at the airport, but when she handed them out last week, she realized it wasn’t enough.
Elias told WKRG he counted 308 people sleeping at the airport last week.
More than 300 migrants were sleeping at San Diego International Airport last week as they waited for flights out of the area. The group We All We Got said it would normally bring 50 sandwiches and food to migrants at the airport but realized last week it was not enough.
SBCS, the nonprofit that manages the San Diego Welcome Center, runs several buses from its facility to the airport each day.
Some volunteers have suggested that the migrants be transported directly to the airport after being processed by the US Border Patrol.
In a statement to the Union-Tribune, airport officials acknowledged, “Since late last year, San Diego International Airport has experienced a significant increase in the number of immigrants using the airport to continue on to their next destination.
“We have and will continue to coordinate with volunteer groups and non-profit organizations that serve migrants as they help their clients navigate the airport.”
SBCS, the nonprofit that manages the San Diego Welcome Center, runs several buses to the airport each day.AP
Nearly 20 of the immigrants who arrive each day do not have a booked flight, said Immigrant Advocate Legal Center managing attorney Paulina Reyes.
About half can find a flight by the end of the day, he said, but there are some cases where immigrant families wait three or four nights at the airport while they wait for family members to buy tickets.
Others had booked flights but were sent to the airport days before they were scheduled to depart.
SBCS spokeswoman Mindy Wright has denied the allegations.
Some migrants arriving at the airport do not have onward transport booked, volunteers said.
He told the Union-Tribune that before any bus carrying migrants headed to the airport, staff required migrants to show they had booked a flight for that day or the next.
The city is struggling to cope with a surge of immigrants coming from the southern border.
More than 40,000 immigrants have been processed by Border Patrol agents and released into San Diego County since mid-September.
Asylum seekers are then sent to transit centers, which can soon run out of money.
San Diego is struggling to deal with a surge of immigrants coming from the southern border.Getty Images More than 40,000 immigrants have been processed by Border Patrol agents and released into San Diego County since mid-September.AFP via Getty Images
County officials allocated $3 million in October for its operations, but it was unclear when or if it might receive additional funding.
“As a county, we’re doing everything we can to reallocate some funding, but right now, I need the federal government to do their part,” San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas said as she invited federal and state officials to tour the facility more. early this month, according to 10 News.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
