East County Supervisors, candidate for vacant seat split on views over migrant aid

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Migrants in Jacumba Hot Springs in May 2023

October 12, 2023 (San Diego) – By a 3-0 vote,  San Diego County Supervisors on Tuesday approved allocating $3 million in federal American Rescue Act funds to aid nonprofit groups that have become overwhelmed by waves of migrants in our region. Agencies through the region’s  Rapid Response Network are handling hundreds of asylum seekers daily in recent weeks. The funding will provide immediate aid with a goal of consolidating resources into a proposed migrant center in the future.

An estimated 98% of these migrants have family in the U.S., according to the proposal. But after being processed and screened by Border Patrol agents, many are being dropped off at transit stations without food, water, translation services, or any means of contacting relatives or traveling to reunite with their families. Recently, many migrants have been held temporarily in scorching desert heat in areas such as Jacumba and Boulevard without shade, water or food; community volunteers have stepped up to provide tarps, water, and sandwiches in what ECM reporter Rebecca Person termed “peanut butter diplomacy.” One immigrant called a volunteer offering food “an angel.”

An award-winning ECM report in May led the Southern Border Communities Coalition to file a federal complaint with Homeland Security over alleged mistreatment of migrants in violation of U.S. and international laws.

The use of the federal funds approved by Supervisors, intended as a three-month stopgap measure while the  County pushes for more federal money, will be used to help migrants and asylum seekers with translation help, transportation, food, water, hygiene kits, restrooms, access to Wi-Fi and equipment to reach relatives and move beyond San Diego to their destination, while asylum seekers await hearings in immigration court.

By Chris Jennewein, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo: Migrants wait in line while California border activists organize  group to enter  U.S. and seek asylum through  Chaparral entryway in Tijuana. Photo by Carlos A. Moreno for CalMatters

February 24, 2023 (San Diego) -- The San Diego Rapid Response Network issued a condemnation Wednesday of the Biden Administration’s proposed new restrictions on refugees seeking asylum in the United States.

The coalition of human-rights organizations, led by Jewish Family Service of San Diego, operates local migrant shelters funded by state government and private donors.

Supervisor Anderson to introduce measure to help those stranded, seek funds from FEMA – and asks public to sign petition in support

By Miriam Raftery

View video of interview with Sup. Joel Anderson

Hear audio of our interview aired on KNSJ Radio

December 31, 2022 (San Diego’s East County) – With extreme cold gripping much of the nation and shelters for asylum-seekers full, the federal government sent hundreds to San Diego County. Border Patrol agents dumped at least 880 asylum seekers off at transit stations, including 140 abandoned at the El Cajon Transit Center last weekend starting on Christmas Eve.

By Chris Jennewein, Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Asylum seekers gather in Tijuana in 2018. Photo by Chris Stone

October 28, 2020 (San Diego) - Jewish Family Service of San Diego is leading a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s controversial “remain in Mexico” policy to keep asylum seekers out of the United States.

A new archive of hundreds of letters between a group of volunteers and asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border has been developed and is being digitized at the SDSU Library.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes

February 13, 2019 (San Diego) - What began as a casual gathering of friends has become a first-of-its-kind living archive of handwritten letters shared by hundreds of asylum seekers detained along the U.S.-Mexico border. Those letters, in the collective correspondence, provide a detailed description of each person’s path to pursuing asylum, and the conditions inside detention centers. 

By Chris Jennewein

Reprinted with permission from Times of San Diego, a member of the San Diego Online News Association

Photo:  Jewish Family Service CEO Michael Hopkins speaks to the press after the Board of Supervisors vote. Photo by Chris Jennewein

January 8, 2019 (San Diego) - The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to help a coalition of local nonprofit groups assist asylum seekers by providing temporary shelter on county property.

“Now it falls to us to say, as leaders, what can we do? We have the obligation to help,” said newly elected Supervisor Nathan Fletcher at his first board meeting.

East County News Service

December 9, 2018 (Sacramento) - California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a multistate amicus brief filed in support of a lawsuit brought by the ACLU, which challenges the Trump Administration’s efforts to prevent people who have not entered the country at a “port of entry” from applying for asylum in the United States. 

By Chris Stone

Reprinted with permission from Times of San Diego, a San Diego Online News Association member

Photo:  Many women and children from Mexico and Central America waited to see if they would be the next people allowed to enter the U.S. Photo by Chris Stone

June 24, 2018 (San Diego) - Natash waited in line Saturday morning to present herself to U.S. immigration officials at the PedWest Port of Entry, believing that America is the “best place where human rights are respected.

East County Magazine reported on complaints about a CCA private immigration detention facility in San Diego County back in 2011

By Miriam Raftery

August 29, 2016 (Washington D.C.) – Just one week after the U.S. Justice Department announced plans to phase out its use of 13 private prisons due to reports of serious abuse and ineffectiveness, as ECM reported,  Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson today called for a review to determine if use of private immigration detention facilities should be eliminated. The review should be done by November 30.

September 20, 2012 (San Diego) -- Join SAME and The "Centro Cultural De La Raza" as we Co-Host this important subject on  September 29th, 2012 from 6 –9p.m. at Centro Cultural de la Raza, 2004 Park Blvd., San Diego, 92101.

Experienced attorneys will speak about issues impacting LGBT immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers, including the progress made in adjudicating claims by same-sex  bi-national couples, the impact of DOMA litigation or repeal of DOMA on LGBT immigrants and much more.