San Diego officials on Thursday called the city the “new epicenter” of the border crisis and criticized California for “creating this problem on ourselves.”
“San Diego has become the new epicenter for immigration and illegal immigration,” said San Diego District 5 Superintendent Jim Desmond. Posted On social media platform
Desmond said Wednesday that in just one day, Border Patrol agents had arrested 2,000 people attempting to cross the border illegally, including “206 Chinese nationals.” According to his post, about 215,000 people from 75 countries have been arrested since October.
“People are just walking across the border. Border Patrol agents have no authority to stop them,” Desmond said. NewsNation interview. “All they do is process them after they cross the border.”
He also took issue with the increasing number of migrants arriving in San Diego by boat, saying that “at a minimum” migrants are being fingerprinted when they show up at the U.S.-Mexico border and that Border Patrol is “minimally He said that he would carry out “inspections.”
“And what’s happening in California is, you know, we’re imposing this on ourselves. You know, we’re giving free health care to immigrants. We can give them free legal advice, not advice, but we will pay their legal fees if they are deported,” Desmond said. “Local law enforcement is prohibited, and immigration law enforcement is prohibited.”
The Hill has reached out to the San Diego Border Patrol to confirm Desmond’s statistics and for further comment.
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