More than 1,500 migrants dropped off on San Diego streets, many waiting at airport

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — More than 1,500 migrants were released from Border Patrol custody to a San Ysidro bus stop in just a span of three days, according to San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond.

“It’s disgraceful for our country and what we’ve become and the fact that this is how we treat immigrants,” Desmond said. “Border Patrol is their Uber, San Diego is their travel agent.”

The street releases come after San Diego’s taxpayer funded $6 million migrant processing center closed last week.

Desmond said San Diegans should have never been paying for it, but that the center ran out of money in just 4.5 months, going through about $1.5 million per month.

Hundreds of migrants dropped off at bus stops, airport in San Diego

The welcome center fed migrants, helped them charge their phones and have a place to be until travel arrangements were finalized.

The San Diego Migrant Welcome Center has processed 81,000 migrants since October 2023.

On Friday, hundreds of migrants arrived at San Diego’s airport. On Sunday, FOX 5/KUSI crews saw a bus full of migrants arrive at the airport around 7 p.m., who were being helped by a non-profit in checking in for their flights.

Other charity groups were seen passing out food to the migrants sleeping at the airport Sunday night. While some are awaiting their travel arrangements, some our crews talked to had no idea what to do next.

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One migrant told us he planned to fly to New York, but did not have any money because of an issue with his bank in Morocco.

Mustapha Micradi, said he was on a 2-month, $11,000 journey through several countries to get to the United States to seek asylum.

He told us he did not think it would be like this when he stepped foot on U.S. soil.

Micradi said after he crossed the border with a large group, he was proceed by Border Patrol, and then taken to a transit center which helped him get on a bus to the airport. But he said he has been sleeping outside of the airport for up to five days so far.

“It’s really not good,” he added.

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As county leaders on both sides of the aisle have been fighting for federal help, they also agree the current way many are seeking asylum is not humane.

“It’s a faster way of entering into the United States, however it’s a very dangerous way of doing so, and often times it’s the only real option that people have,” said Pedro Rios of American Friends Service Committee.

Rios said the wait time to use the CBP One App can be very lengthy.

“We’ve got a legal system in place, where people can apply online throughout the world, they can go to an embassy, they can come in with dignity, without having to cross through a fence or go through a river,” Desmond said. “And right now, what we’re allowing to happen is, we’re allowing people who just walk across the border to jump ahead of the line. And I don’t blame them for doing it if we’re allowing it to happen. Why apply legally, if you can just jump ahead of the line.”

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Desmond said he witnessed more than 100 migrants being dropped off at a San Ysidro bus stop Sunday morning, and many asked him how to get to New York, Virginia, etc. He said there were no facilities for them, and some were relieving themselves in the parking lot of the MTS bus stop and changing in between cars in the parking lot.

Desmond said there is one migrant center in San Diego, paid for by the federal government, but it is not enough. He has asked for the federal government to stop migrants from crossing our border while there is “nowhere for them to go.”

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He, and other leaders, are calling on the federal government to take action.

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