More than 14,000 asylum seekers were sent to San Diego. Local support systems were overwhelmed
Cash-strapped NGOs and legal aid groups are jumping in to help migrants figure out next steps as California cut funding
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/19/california-asylum-seekers-san-diego-budget-cuts
Several non-profit organizations have set up at the Iris Avenue transit center to welcome the asylum seekers – people from west African countries, India, Turkey, Colombia, Venezuela, Russia, Uzbekistan, China and Vietnam.
Elouhhab lived in Mexico for six years, where he drove for Uber and worked at a plastics factory. He left Mexico because it had become too dangerous, he said. He himself arrived at the transit center weeks ago and has stayed to help other migrants getting out of detention.
“What I’m seeing is people who are middle class, upper middle class, have the resources to get here, have the resources for plane tickets and hotels, and are fleeing persecution in some cases, in other cases it’s economic migration. But by and large they are asking me like, how do I get a job? How do I get my work permit? And they are turning themselves into border patrol. This isn’t people who are trying to evade capture.”
Legal migration routes to the US right now are “extremely limited”, Pinheiro explained. While US law in theory permits people to cross at a port of entry and apply for asylum, in practice applications are limited by the requirement migrants use the CBP One to apply and book an appointment. “You can probably count on two hands how many people speak Spanish, Haitian Creole or English, which are the three languages supported by the CBP One app,” Pinheiro said. “And unless you can make an appointment on the government app, you are turned away from the port of entry.” Migrants end up crossing the border elsewhere and being detained by border patrol at the detention sites at the border wall, she said
Quite interesting, more so the source as this is not what they usually peddle.