Border Patrol agents in San Diego have freed hundreds of migrants from buses as the U.S.-Mexico border crisis continues to overwhelm California.
The city is struggling to cope with a surge of migrants in the area and footage shows them being released from overcrowded facilities.
A border agent was heard telling someone he could do whatever he wanted as people from countries including China and Pakistan were dropped off on the streets on Thursday afternoon.
It comes as southwestern border cities and federal processing centers are overcapacity as a crushing crossing cripples the nation.
There have been more than 7,000 illegal crossings across the US-Mexico border on several days this week.
Border Patrol agents in San Diego have freed hundreds of migrants from buses as the U.S.-Mexico border crisis continues to overwhelm California.
The city is struggling to cope with a surge of migrants in the area and footage shows them being released from overcrowded facilities
It comes as southwestern border cities and federal processing centers are overcapacity as a crushing crossing cripples the nation
A video shows at least three white unmarked Border Patrol buses filled with migrants parked in San Diego.
They started putting hundreds of people on the streets. One migrant was told by an officer: ‘You are free to go and do wherever you want. You are free.’
He asked, “Wouldn’t it be a problem if I went to Chicago?”
“You can do whatever you want,” the official replied.
Border Patrol in San Diego reportedly processed 20,000 migrants in custody in the past week — 5,000 more than the facilities can handle.
It cannot accommodate more than 15,000 migrants and sends migrants onto the streets to fend for themselves after being processed at the border.
Similar migrant releases took place in Tucson, Arizona, with agents encountering 2,000 people a day and dealing with overcrowded shelters.
People from the African countries of Senegal, Mauritania, Ghana and Sudan are among the migrants who recently crossed into the US from Mexico.
The freedmen are now forced to fend for themselves in the intense heat and with limited resources.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seen the number of border conflicts at its southwestern borders increase exponentially each fiscal year. There have been almost 2 million crossings in the region so far this year – a figure that does not include August and September.
Cochise County, Arizona, is being battered by waves of migrants being transported from other counties after crossing the border amid President Joe Biden’s lax policies.
“The intellectual avoidance and neglect with its intended consequences” from those leaders in Washington DC points to our southern border and continues to be a slippery slope for those doing everything they can to protect our quality of life here in Cochise County!” Sheriff Mark Dannels said.
Border Patrol in San Diego reportedly processed 20,000 migrants in custody in the past week — 5,000 more than the facilities can handle
There have been more than 7,000 illegal crossings across the US-Mexico border on several days this week
“The migrants being released are from outside of Cochise County, but were bused into Cochise County, processed and then released,” Daniels noted in a Facebook post.
“I applaud local (Customs and Border Protection) agents and their leadership for doing everything legally possible during this ongoing crisis.”
It is unclear exactly how many migrants the processing facilities in Tucson can accommodate or how many have been transported to other locations such as Cochise County.
The US border has seen a flow of migrants from all over the world, not just from Central and South American countries such as Venezuela and Mexico. Migrants from China and other places have entered through the porous southern border.
Fiscal year 2022 saw record numbers of migrant encounters at the southwest border, with 2,378,944 reported crossings from October to September.
By July 2023, there were 1,973,092, many of which came when Title 42 expired.
U.S. Border Patrol agents are turning migrants away after processing them because their facilities are overcrowded and at maximum capacity
Senegalese migrants are among thousands of others who have been turned away from processing facilities and taken to the streets to fend for themselves.
According to Fox News, the number of migrants crossing the border in August will exceed 230,000.
The jump in crossings has grown in recent years, with only 458,088 crossings reported in 2020 during the global COVID pandemic.
Most encounters with migrants are single adults, at 64.9 percent, but nearly 600,000 are individuals in a family unit and there are 109,298 unaccompanied minors who have crossed the border.
Issues of overcapacity exist throughout the southern border. Along with Tucson, street releases take place in the San Diego sector and in Santa Cruz County, California.
Texas is using razor wire to block migrants entering illegally as the country battles a challenge from the Biden administration that wants to prevent it from building a buoy barrier in the Rio Grande.