The protest made the CBS national news on Tuesday. Perhaps it will be shown in Guatemala City and points south.
It’s good to see rowdy demonstrations against the government forcing citizens to accept and financially support needy aliens at a time when many Americans are suffering from five years of jobless recovery.
Hundreds of angry citizens of Lawrenceville, Virginia, turned out in force to a town meeting last month to oppose the plan to house 500 foreign teenagers at a closed college campus nearby. Like the Californians, they were concerned about crime, contagious disease and the government’s misplaced priorities with the well being of non-Americans.
Migrant families arrive at Customs Border Patrol facility in San Ysidro, CBS News San Diego, July 1, 2014SAN DIEGO – Three buses carrying migrant families arrived in Murrieta Tuesday to a crowd of protesters, who blocked the vehicles and forced them to turn around and head south again. The buses traveled south into San Diego County and arrived at a Customs Border Patrol facility in San Ysidro around 4:15 p.m.
The Ameristar charter flight from Texas, carrying migrant families, arrived in San Diego around 12:15 p.m. Tuesday at Lindbergh Field’s Landmark Aviation. The plane carried more than 100 migrants, including mothers and children. Tuesday afternoon, Homeland Security buses transported them to Murrieta, where they were met by a crowd of protesters chanting “USA” and “Go back home.” The protesters refused to clear the roadway, forcing the buses to turn around and head south to an unknown location.
In the wake of the children’s arrival, there’s growing concern among local residents.
Families in Southern California are outraged, even the mayor of Murrieta is objecting to migrant families being taken to their city, displeased at how the Federal government is handling the surge of undocumented parents and children.
About 140 Central American migrants – often escaping dangerous living conditions in their home countries – were flown to San Diego and transported by bus to Murrieta where they were to be processed at the Border Patrol facility. However, due to protesters in the area preventing the buses from entering the facility, the migrants have been transported south to the Customs Border Patrol facility in San Ysidro.
“We want people to be aware of the safety concerns that are not only for Border Patrol agents but for the community they are going to be coming into,” said Gabe Pacheco, with the Border Patrol Union.
The Border Patrol Agents Union in San Diego report that some of the undocumented families are at risk for transmitting parasites or tuberculosis.
In an unprecedented move by the Feds, there are plans to relocate thousands still held at the Texas-Mexico border to San Diego every three days in groups of 140.
Ev Meade, Director for the Trans-Border Institute at University of San Diego, says their research on immigration issues proves there is no need for panic. He disagrees with Border Patrol Union members.
“Most of the fear and things about disease and criminality and about the border being let open to everybody – they just are not really true,” Meade said.
Once the undocumented immigrants are processed, Immigration Customs Enforcement will take custody, set up hearings and help migrants leave Murrieta to places they want to go. That’s after monitoring flight risks with ankle bracelets, while violent criminals are detained.
“Ninety percent do not return for immigration hearings,” Pacheco said.
But Meade says ICE agents will hold the migrant families accountable.
“We need to calm down and have faith in our system and have faith in our values and not throw it out the window in a fit of hysteria,” Meade said.
A city council meeting set for 6 p.m. Tuesday in Murrieta.
