JULIE WATSON
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Border Patrol announced Friday that it was going forward with its plans to fly Central American migrants from the Rio Grande Valley to Southern California and two Texas border cities to help relieve what President Barack Obama has called a humanitarian crisis.
Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that the agency plans to transport adults and children from the Rio Grande Valley to Laredo and El Paso in Texas and San Diego and El Centro in Southern California.
Friday’s announcement comes less than a week after the agency canceled the California flights. Officials released no further details. It is not known when the flights would begin nor how many migrants would be transported to the state.
Paul Beeson, chief of the Border Patrol’s San Diego sector, told The Associated Press a week ago that the plan at that time called for two flights with 140 passengers each. They were expected to continue every three days, carrying mostly families with children and some adults.
Thousands of Central American families and unaccompanied children have been coming to the U.S. in recent months as they flee violence, murders and extortion from criminal gangs in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Many of them are under the impression that they will receive leniency from U.S. authorities once they get here. Once the migrants are processed, Immigration and Customs Enforcement decides who can be released while awaiting deportation proceedings.
More than 52,000 children have been detained since October. The vast majority have been caught in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. Because officials had run out of room at facilities there, they began releasing immigrant families and requiring them to report back within 15 days. Later, officials flew hundreds to Arizona for processing.
Several new detention centers are expected to open to deal with the influx.
News of detention centers opening in communities has stirred up fear and anger among residents who worry the immigrants will bring in new illnesses, tax local resources, escape and spike crime rates.
A senior U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official during a media tour Thursday of a new facility in New Mexico told The Associated Press that authorities there aim to deport the immigrants within 10 to 15 days to send a message back to their home countries that there are consequences for illegal immigration. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to talk publicly, citing agency policy.
At the facility, women found crossing with children also will not be released, but held and quickly processed, a step toward returning the department to its policy before the crisis.
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