SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Since January, hundreds of migrant families seeking asylum have found themselves north of the border after being released by Border Patrol agents.
In San Diego alone, according to Jewish Family Service, an agency that works with migrants and other people in need, about 300 immigrants have been allowed to remain in the U.S. after asking for asylum, something that had been virtually unheard of under the Trump administration.
According to the New York Times, border towns like Mexicali, Mexico, are seeing an influx of migrants arriving daily with plans to scale the border fence and seek asylum upon apprehension.
In the Mexican city of Matamoros just south of Brownsville, Texas, the population at a migrant camp since January has reportedly grown to more than 1,000 people waiting to cross into the U.S.
In San Diego, migrants who are being allowed to stay in the U.S. are being turned over to JFS.
It is arranging for asylum-seekers to stay in hotels where they are being quarantined. There is a 10-day quarantine order in place by the San Diego County Health Department.
“They are released into the custody of Jewish Family Service San Diego, we work with San Diego Rapid Response Network a coalition of organizations locally to make sure we can process people seeking asylum to do it in a way that does not endanger public health of our communities, staff and of those individuals that are coming,” said Eitan Peled, with JFS.
Peled says during the 10-day hotel stays, they provide health care, case management, personal hygiene products and make travel arrangements for the migrants.
“Most people who come across don’t want to say or plan on staying in border towns, they want to be with family and friends in areas beyond,” Peled said.
According to Peled, they are have seen the number of migrants go dramatically up since President Biden took over.
“Behind every single one of these numbers there is an individual, there is a story, there is a family, someone who is fleeing violence, in search of safety and security like the rest of us want,” he said.
Critics say a new wave of migrants will put even more strain on immigration courts that are already saturated with asylum cases.
They also believe migrants who lose their cases will fade into society and go underground choosing to remain in the country unlawfully adding to the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States.