In the past month, over 20,000 migrants have been dropped in the San Diego region. This surge is unsustainable, and we cannot ignore the challenges it poses to our community. The $3 million allocated by the Board of Supervisors for migrant services at our last board meeting, which I was firmly against, will be exhausted by the end of the year.
San Diego County is now grappling with an average of nearly 600 migrants being street-released daily. If this trend persists, by the end of the year, we are projected to have over 52,000 migrants street-released in our region. This influx is on top of the over 200,000 migrants that have entered San Diego this year.
The open-border policies are creating a threat to the safety of our community. This situation is also placing an unsustainable strain on much-needed homeless resources, further exacerbating the challenges we face in addressing homelessness.
The broken immigration system has diverted many border patrol officials away from patrolling our border to handle migrant documentation. According to the head of Border Patrol, “Over 18,000 known getaways have occurred in the first 16 days of October. These are individuals whose identities and purposes we do not know. That is why you need every Border Patrol agent to be in the field and on patrol.”
It is clear that our immigration system is broken and needs a comprehensive solution. The situation in San Diego is reaching a breaking point, and I urge federal authorities to take swift and decisive action to bring stability and security back to our community.
