California city becomes ground zero of America’s border crisis with more crossings than any other region

It’s official: San Diego is the new ground zero for the US border crisis, where most migrants were apprehended last month.

At least 37,370 migrants have entered the U.S. through the San Diego sector, which includes all of Southern California except El Centro at the Arizona state border, according to U.S. Border Patrol.

In April, the San Diego region surpassed Tucson, which had been the busiest in the country, and fell to second place with 31,219 border encounters.

The El Paso sector, which includes the West Texas city and all of New Mexico, rose to third place with 30,393.

San Diego’s emergence as a border hotspot was expected, as the area has been bombarded with as many as 6,000 to 8,000 border crossings per week in recent months.

“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised,” San Diego County Commissioner Jim Desmond told DailyMail.com last month.

“Texas is getting stricter and other areas are getting stricter. Here in California they are allowed to enter unhindered. They’re going to follow the path of least resistance, and the least resistance is in California.”

In fact, the Del Rio Sector, which includes the Texas city of the same name and Eagle Pass, had long held the top spot nationwide as of 2021.

In January, Texas’ governor cracked down on illegal crossings by seizing a park known to allow migrants to pass through.

Gov. Greg Abbott also kicked Border Patrol agents out of the country, claiming the federal government was doing enough to prevent migrants from entering.

While Abbott’s actions have been credited with the shift, drug cartels have more influence over where migrants intersect.

San Diego had the most encounters in April, followed by the Tucson sector and El Paso, according to recently released U.S. Border Patrol figures.

US Customs and Border Patrol, the parent agency of the US Border Patrol, has released the latest figure for the month of April, showing that approximately 37,370 migrants entered the country through the San Diego sector

A $13 billion enterprise smuggling people from Mexico into the US has been described by border experts as hellish, with one area flaring up while another calms down.

Since February, the Mexican government has also stepped up efforts to keep migrants in Mexico before they can ever reach the US.

This has resulted in fewer border crossings than normal across the entire international border.

In April, 247,837 migrants entered the US illegally, compared to previous months when more than 300,000 people crossed.

Migrants arrested in the San Diego sector, vetted by U.S. Border Patrol, are released onto the streets.

The county’s migrant shelter closed a few months ago after local leaders decided they didn’t want to spend the $18 million a year to keep it running.

Migrants with hand luggage are stopped at the border in El Campo on March 13

“It was costing us about $1.5 million a month at that time to essentially be their travel agent. Border Patrol was their Uber, taking them to the drop areas, and then we were their travel agent,” Desmond joked.

Without the local shelter, migrants are released by the FBI at a transit station or at the airport.

“The biggest burden here lately has been our airport. Fortunately, many of them fly to other parts of the country, but we are a tourist community. People who come to San Diego see all the people sleeping there. It looks bad,” the commissioner added.

“We just can’t keep it up; we can’t manage the numbers coming here.”

Migrants have been known to crash at the airport for up to five days while waiting for a flight out of town, Desmond added.

Migrants surrender to U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border wall from Mexico near Campo, California, about 50 miles from San Diego, on Wednesday, March 13

Like other border communities across the country, San Diego’s airport is not adding additional flights simply because there is a spike in the number of migrants crossing.

Often there are no seats available to fly out or migrants with limited resources wait a day or two until ticket prices drop and they can afford to travel to their final destination.

Last month, an image of a migrant sleeping under toilet sinks at the airport was shared by a local conservative talk show host.

“My photo at San Diego International Airport this morning. Men’s room at TSA, gates 5-10 in Terminal One. Homeless transient or ‘asylum seeker’ sleeps under sinks next to urinals. This is happening everywhere, with a sharp increase in migrants being dumped in SD,” Mark Larson tweeted.

However, Biden has promised the province $20 million to open a shelter in the coming weeks.