Protesters in Murrieta turn buses carrying detained immigrants away

[Lion Heart 15,041]

UPDATE


Protesters in Murrieta turn buses carrying detained immigrants away

A crowd of 200 to 300 people in downtown Murrieta surrounded three buses carrying immigrant detainees Tuesday afternoon, causing the buses to turn around before they reached a Border Patrol station in the Riverside County city.

Waving Americans flags and protest signs, the crowd refused to give way when the buses arrived with some 140 detainees from Texas, which has seen a flood of Central American immigrants cross the border in recent weeks without legal permission.
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FOR THE RECORD
July 2, 8:07 a.m.: An earlier version of this post included a photo gallery that referred to "residents opposed to immigration." The reference should have been to "residents opposed to illegal immigration."
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A small number of Murrieta police officers stood between the protesters and the buses but could not keep the crowd from blocking the buses' path.

The face-off came one day after Mayor Alan Long urged residents to protest the federal government’s decision to move the recent immigrants who had arrived in the country illegally -- and have overwhelmed Texas border facilities -- to the Border Patrol station here.

“Murrieta expects our government to enforce our laws, including the deportation of illegal immigrants caught crossing our borders, not disperse them into our local communities,†Long said Monday at a news conference. The city had defeated two previous attempts to send migrants to the facility, he said.
Unable to drop off their passengers safely in Murrieta, buses instead headed for a Border Patrol facility in San Diego County, arriving late Tuesday afternoon.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials met with city officials in Murrieta and Temecula before the protests, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the agency, adding that ICE is aware of concerns in the region.
“We’re sensitive to those issues and we’re seeking to address them,†she said.

An initial 140 migrants had been expected to arrive in Murrieta on Tuesday afternoon, Long said, followed by  arrivals every 72 hours for several weeks. The detainees are primarily children accompanied by mothers or fathers. They were to be processed at the Murrieta facility before being placed under the supervision of ICE agents who would ensure that they were united with family throughout the country, Long said.

This year, Border Patrol agents across the Southwest have detained more than 52,000 unaccompanied minors, with a particular concentration along the Rio Grande border in Texas, according to federal records.
Murrieta expects our government to enforce our laws, including the deportation of illegal immigrants caught crossing our borders, not disperse them into our local communities.
 
Because of this influx, officials are sending migrants to Border Patrol facilities in less heavily trafficked areas, such as Southern California, for processing and supervised release by ICE agents.

By sending migrants to the Murrieta facility, the federal government is not properly enforcing immigration laws that require immediate deportation of undocumented immigrants, Long said.
But, according to the mayor, public safety officials were fully prepared for the arrival and have established an information hotline that residents can use for updates on the transfer.

“I can say, without equivocation, Murrieta will remain safe,†Long said.
Murrieta is one of several cities whose facilities will receive migrants as the government seeks to lessen the burden on the Texas border. Migrants will also be sent to a border patrol facility in El Centro, in neighboring Imperial County, as well as a center in New Mexico, which has also caused lawmakers there to protest.

“Murrieta expects our government to enforce our laws, including the deportation of illegal immigrants caught crossing our borders, not disperse them into our local communities,†Long said Monday at a news conference." That's what most of us want.

In his comments Monday, Long emphasized the temporary nature of the new arrivals.
“There is not, and never has been, any intention to release these immigrants locally out the front door of the Border Patrol office,†he said.

Protester Roger Cotton, 49, drove up from San Diego to wave a flag outside the Murrieta Border Patrol Station.
"I wanted to say that I as an American citizen do not approve of this human disaster that the government has created," Cotton said. He said he believes the migrants who were supposed to be dropped off at the station would be a burden on an already strained system.

"Who’s going to pay for them?" he asked. "What kind of criminality will happen?"
Cotton, who works as a 3D animator, said he blames Democrats for not doing more to secure the border.
"The Democrats are making it easy for them to come here so they can produce more Democratic voters," he said.

Cotton arrived shortly after the bus was blocked and turned around. He said he decided to come to Murrieta on his own accord and was surprised to find other protesters there.
He stood with a group of them on the side of the road, chanting "USA" and sparring with a group of counter-protesters who had come to support the immigrants.
Lupillo Rivera, 42, was one of them.

A well-known Mexican banda singer who came to the United States at age 4, Rivera said he was driving by when he happened upon the protest at the Border Patrol station. He said somebody shouted that he was an illegal immigrant and should go home. Rivera, who is a U.S. citizen, went home and returned with several of his friends and bandmates to confront the protesters.

"Our people cook your food," he shouted at them. "We didn't ask for them to come here," one protester shot back.
Rivera, brother of the late Mexican singer Jenni Rivera, said anybody who would turn away a busload of children was "not human."
"It doesn’t matter where a child is from," he said. "He deserves respect and help because he’s a child.
"How can a 5-year-old defend himself?" asked Rivera, who lives in Temecula. "I don’t think we should push a child out of our country."
As light faded over Murrieta, protesters continued their verbal sparring.
Protesters supporting immigrant rights waved Mexican flags and shouted slogans, while across the street, a smaller group of protesters opposed to the immigrants’ arrival waved American flags. Murrieta police patrolled Madison Avenue, which was closed to any further vehicle traffic.

At an evening City Council meeting, officials praised protesters for the lack of violence but assailed the federal government for what they say was a pattern of poor communication and inaction.

“We need to fix this permanently,†said Long, who had issued a call Monday for citizens to contact their elected officials to protest the move. “Today was a Band-Aid. The only people with the power to fix this are in the federal government.â€

Other city officials expressed concern over how Murrieta, with a population of just more than 100,000, would house several groups of immigrants during processing.
City Councilman Rick Gibbs, who toured the Border Patrol facility where the immigrants were to be held, had reservations about the space. “This is a jailhouse,†he said. “This is not a hotel. It is a spartan facility.â€

Gibbs also doubted whether all the detainees would comply with the government requirement that they report back to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office within 15 days of their initial release.

“We're going to dump a bunch of people at a bus station, hope they get somewhere in the United States of America, and somehow in 15 days, they are going to respond and come back?†he said. “Everybody knows that 95% of them are never going to return.â€
Councilman Harry Ramos agreed.

“You would get fined if you dumped off a dog in the street here in Murrieta, but that's what they are doing to people here,†he said.

Texas Approves Border Security Surge

UPDATE: Texas Governor Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, and Speaker Joe Straus today directed the Texas Dept. of Public Safety (DPS) to immediately begin law enforcement surge operations on the Texas/Mexico border. The DPS will attempt to combat the flood of illegal immigration into the state in the absence of adequate federal resources to secure the border. State leaders have authorized approximately $1.3 million per week to fund border security operations.

HOUSTON, Texasâ€â€State Representative Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) told Breitbart Texas she spoke with Governor Rick Perry’s (R-TX) Office and they confirmed the surge to deal with the Texas border crisis is about to begin. Details are not available at this time, but Riddle said, “It is going to happen.â€

Riddle spoke with Governor Perry’s office about the issue and was assured it “is going to be coming soon.†She said Governor Perry’s office is working very closely with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst’s office along with the office of House Speaker Joe Straus.
“They are gathering together everything they need to begin this right away,†Riddle said. She told Breitbart Texas that she could not divulge any information about exactly when, how long, and where the surge would be for reasons of operational security. She also could not disclose what the operational objectives would be at this time.
 
Riddle said, “We are going to feel this particularly here in the Houston area because of Houston’s role as a command and control center for the cartels--for both their d--g and human trafficking operations.†She added that Texas Department of Public Safety Director (DPS) Steve McCraw told her last week that Houston is still the hub for these operations.
Riddle said, “Governor Perry is very angry that the feds are doing nothing about this problem.†She went on to say, “I didn’t expect the feds to do anything." Breitbart Texas reported on June 17 that Governor Perry expressed his frustration with the Obama Administration on Fox New’s Fox and Friends Show.

Riddle reiterated several times that “this is going to happen very soon.†She said that with the cooperation of the Governor, Lt. Governor, and Speaker this can come together without the need for the special session being called for by several legislators and grassroots activists.
 
Press Release Document: http://www.scribd.com/doc/230344824/Perry-Press-Release-Texas-Border-Surge
http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/06/18/BREAKING-Texas-Border-Security-Surge-Imminent

 
Joe Biden to meet with top officials from Guatemala, Hoduras, and El Salvador to discuss child immigration crisis

Vice President Joe Biden is extending a planned trip to Latin America this week in order to convene a high-level meeting in the region to address a massive surge in children crossing the border into the U.S. through Mexico.
Biden will add a stop in Guatemala on Friday to meet with the president of that country and El Salvador, as well as a top official from Honduras, senior Obama Administration officials told reporters.

“The surge of unaccompanied central American children crossing the U.S.-Mexican border is an issue of great concern to us,†said a senior official who briefed reporters Sunday on the trip. “Our top priority is to manage this urgent humanitarian situation. .. The entire U.S. administration is engaged in addressing the situation, in making sure these children are housed and fed and receive medical treatment, but at the same time we also realize the crucial importance of stemming the tide of migration.â€

According to surveys and press reports, some of the surge is due to rumors that kids who make it into the U.S. by the end of this year will be eligible to stay in the U.S. indefinitely or permanently.

Administration officials have said they believe the surge is due primarily to economic hardship and an increase in d--g-related violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. They have also underscored that children arriving now are not eligible for a deferred deportation program President Barack Obama has set up and would not be eligible for residency under immigration reform measures pending in the Congress.

While in Guatemala, officials said, Biden will speak out publicly to discourage parents from sending children north to the U.S. Ã¢â‚¬Å“The vice president will be making this trip to Guatemala to discuss both the violence and economic opportunity side and the misperceptions of U.S. immigration policy,†said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “While he’s there in Guatemala he will emphasize that illegal immigration is not safe. That putting your child in the hands of a criminal smuggling organization is not safe. And he will make clear that recently arriving children are not eligible for [the deferred deportation program] or earned citizenship provisions in current immigration reform legislation.â€

“The bottom line is that it’s not worth subjecting children to a perilous journey when, at the end of the day, there is no light at the end of the tunnel,†the official added.
 
Some Republican lawmakers assert that Obama’s rhetoric and actions on illegal immigration, including his decision to defer deportation of some migrants who arrived as children in 2007 or earlier, has fueled the surge across the border. Last week, Sens. Jeff Flake and John McCain, both Arizona Republicans, sent the president a letter urging him to speak out publicly in order to stem the flow of children making the trip north.

Administration officials did not acknowledge a direct connection between the letter and Biden’s decision to stage the summit-type meeting, but said they’re well aware of the criticism. Ã¢â‚¬Å“We’ve had extensive consultations with Congress over the last several days and consider dealing with this challenge a partnership,†the senior official said.
 
Biden will also be visiting the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Brazil, where he’ll attend the World Cup.
Last Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson told Congress his agency is struggling to keep with the onslaught of young people crossing into the United States from Mexico. Nearly 50,000 minors have been detained by U.S. immigration authorities in this fiscal year, almost double the number a year earlier.
“The numbers are rising. … Undeniably, there is a problem of humanitarian proportions,†the secretary said.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/joe-biden-child-migrants-latin-america-107880.html#ixzz34miDadbh

Obama admin to move thousands of immigrant children from TX to MD/ VA

WASHINGTON  The Obama administration plans to move as many as 1,000 unaccompanied minor migrants from Border Patrol facilities in Texas to facilities in Baltimore, Md., and Richmond, Va., in an effort to ease overcrowding and address the growing humanitarian crisis along the border.

Tens of thousands of Central American children, many under the age of 10, have begun flooding across the border and into cramped, overcrowded holding facilities. The White House has directed FEMA to begin working with the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services to relocate the children.

DHS has already begun moving children to facilities in Texas and California, and starting Saturday will move them to Ft. Sill in Oklahoma. According to a “transportation flow chart†obtained by BuzzFeed, the administration will now begin resettling the children to an Office of Refugee Resettlement facility in Baltimore and to St. Paul’s College in Richmond. Both facilities can accommodate up to 500 beds, according to the document. According to the chart, DHS buses and planes, as well as commercial planes, will be used to transport the children to all facilities.

The decision to move the children to other facilities has angered conservatives, including Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, who has threatened to sue the government to temporarily block sending them to a Nogales, Ariz., facility.
HHS spokesman Ken Wolfe declined to comment on the plan to move the children to Baltimore and Richmond, saying in an email, “Fort Sill’s temporary shelter will begin to receive children in the Unaccompanied Alien Children program tomorrow. There are no announcements yet on future facilities.â€

http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnstanton/exclusive-white-house-plans-to-move-1000-immigrant-minors-to

 
Senate approves $2 Billion to aid in Immigrant children crisis.

The growing immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, where tens of thousands of unaccompanied children have arrived in the last year, is sparking efforts in Congress to contain the situation.
On Tuesday, a Senate appropriations panel voted to give the Obama administration $2 billion it requested to handle the dramatic increase in child migration.
 
The money is more than $1.1 billion more than President Barack Obama initially asked for in his budget proposal for the Health and Human Services division that cares for and houses immigrant children caught alone at the border. It would effectively come from yet unspecified changes in mandatory programs.
Advocates with organization that assist undocumented immigrants and push for policies that would help them lauded the efforts to address the crisis.

“This will help the federal government and non-governmental organizations respond to the arrival of unaccompanied minors, most of whom have fled violence, suffered abuse and are, after all, kids,†said Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of America’s Voice, a D.C.-based group that advocates for comprehensive immigration reform.
 
“Not all of them will get to stay in America,†Sharry said to Fox News Latino, “but every one of them deserves to be treated humanely while their request for protection is adjudicated.â€
 
Another proposed bill in the Senate would change the pay structure of the Border Patrol to add manpower and allow more flexibility around overtime wage restraints.
The bill, which is backed by Sens. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, and Jon Tester, a Missouri Democrat, could add some 1,500 border agents to help with the surge of undocumented immigrants – many of them youth traveling alone – that is overwhelming immigration authorities who are working in the area.
 
James W. Ziglar, who served as immigration commissioner under President George W. Bush, told Fox News Latino the proposal is only putting a Band-Aide on the problem.
"An additional 1,500 agents will help, but I don’t know that it will end the problem,†Ziglar said. “If people are determined to come here, they’ll come.â€
 
“What we need is to do something about the overall immigration policy – it doesn’t work.â€
Border Patrol Deputy Chief Ronald Vitiello told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Monday that it would give the agency more capability, according to ABC News.
“It’s in essence,†he said, “giving us nearly 1,500 agents more capability along the borders with current staffing levels.â€
 
Brandon Judd, whose labor union represents about 17,000 border agents, noted in the Homeland Security committee hearing that the unaccompanied children influx and pay restrictions for agents are having a detrimental impact.
 
“It’s pulling agents out of the field. They’re no longer patrolling the border,†he said, according to ABC. “They’re having to deal with this whole influx of minors that are coming in. They’re having to process them. They’re having to watch them. They’re having to feed them. They’re having to do all these different things instead of actually being out and patrolling the border.â€
 
The number of children found trying to cross the Mexican border without parents has skyrocketed in recent years. Between 2008 and 2011, the number of children landing in the custody of HHS's Refugee Resettlement fluctuated between 6,000 and 7,500 per year.
 
In 2012, border agents apprehended 13,625 unaccompanied children and that number surged even more  to over 24,000  last year. The total is expected to be as high as 90,000 this year.
Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Brian Deese wrote to committee chairwoman Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., to formally ask for more money on May 30.
The HHS budget approved by the committee would also allow the government to move money from other areas if the flow of child immigrants grows beyond the latest estimate of up to 90,000.
The full Senate will have to approve the final version of the HHS budget. And the House has not yet acted on the issue.
 
Most children caught crossing the border alone are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala and cannot be quickly repatriated.
 
Under federal law, the children are supposed to be turned over to HHS within 72 hours. Most are then reunited with parents or other relatives already living in the United States.
 
Because of the massive influx of children this year, the Border Patrol IN TEXAS has been forced to house many children in local patrol stations and recently has moved some young immigrants to Nogales, Arizona, where they are being quartered temporarily in a warehouse.
 
The administration has turned to the Department of Defense to use three military bases in California, Texas and Oklahoma to temporarily house other children once they are transferred to HHS care. Ziglar, now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, said unaccompanied minors arriving illegally in the United States has always been a problem.
 
“The surge has come and gone†over the decades, but “I have no memory of anything of this significance,†Ziglar said about his time as immigration commissioner between 2001 and 2002.
“It’s not totally unexpected that older kids want to come here, and that many people want to get their kids here,†said Ziglar, “It’s really, in a sense, the most heartbreaking of all [immigration] situations. These are minors, who are here with no family. You can’t just let these kids run the streets or starve.â€
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Elizabeth Llorente can be reached [email protected]
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2014/06/11/escalating-child-migration-crisis-at-mexico-border-sends-congress-scrambling-to/

LEAKED Photos of Immigrant children crowded in TX border facilities

SAN ANTONIO  Photos leaked Thursday from a U.S. Border Patrol facility in the Rio Grande Valley show overflowing holding facilities of immigrants, many of whom are children.
The photos, obtained by the conservative website Breitbart, show hundreds of immigrants believed to be in the country illegally from Central America and Mexico being held in crowded concrete rooms similar to a jail cell. Many of the children appear to be teenagers but some clearly are younger.
 
The photos have a timestamp of May 27, 2014.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the agency has not “officially released any photos at this time in order to protect the rights and privacy of unaccompanied minors in our care.â€
“The influx of unaccompanied children across the southwest border has resulted in an urgent humanitarian situation,†the CBP spokesperson said. “It requires a whole of government coordinated and sustained response.â€
 
President Barack Obama has directed an effort, lead by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to provide resources and “humanitarian relief to affected children,†which is a “priority,†the spokesperson said. It is unclear who leaked the photos to Breitbart.
 
“Given the deteriorating security and economic conditions in the Central American countries where most of these children and adult immigrants came from, it's hard to understand how DHS didn't see this coming,†Longmire said. “The trend towards increased cross-border movement towards south Texas and away from Arizona has been apparent; the trend of Central Americans starting to outnumber Mexican crossers has been apparent. Even worse is believing that DHS knew this was coming, but didn't have the resources or ability to cut through bureaucratic red tape to prepare more quickly.
 
“Now the results of this mismanagement are thousands of individuals living in inhumane conditions for an indeterminate period of time, as well as exhausted and overwhelmed Border Patrol agents and CBP detention facilities," Longmire continued. "The Obama administration's band-aid fix has been to ship a good portion of these immigrants  many of whom are weak, emotionally vulnerable, sick, and confused  to other sectors as far as San Diego county in California and release them with no obligation other than to show up for a hearing in 15 days.
 
“Most of those released will abscond and never show up for their hearings, taking their chances that ICE won't have the time or resources to go looking for them," she added. "Until they can get to where they want to go, they're overwhelming local community resources in cities like Laredo, El Paso, and Tucson that haven't had enough time to prepare for this ‘solution.' This is an awful way to showcase what cartel and gang violence is doing to children and their families in Central America, and it's a humiliating example of what our government's inability to develop solid immigration and border security policies can cause.â€
 
The overwhelming numbers of undocumented immigrants during recent months has impacted San Antonio.
A temporary shelter at Joint Base San Antonio Lackland has housed and provided services to 1,820 unaccompanied minors from Central America since May 18, San Antonio Express-News reporter Melissa Fletcher Stoeltje reported. The immigration is part of a “surge†of children said to be fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries, she reported.
 
For more details on this story, including the conditions of the facility at Lackland, read Fletcher Stoeltje's story at ExpressNews.com or in Friday's print edition of the San Antonio Express-News.
 
Read more: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/06/05/Leaked-Images-Reveal-Children-Warehoused-in-Crowded-US-Cells-Border-Patrol-Overwhelmed#ixzz33oOBxHzk
 
See all photos here: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/06/05/Leaked-Images-Reveal-Children-Warehoused-in-Crowded-US-Cells-Border-Patrol-Overwhelmed

[Mr Josh 3]

Poor kids :(

[gagaisitalian 3,573]

I don't know who to blame in this situation except parents who blindly lead their families into a country where they are not legally allowed.

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

It's bad on both sides...one, they shouldn't be crossing illegally...two, it said HUNDREDS came in at once...I don't think this reflects that they WANT to keep them in these conditions, but where else are they supposed to put them?

[Morphine Prince 109,655]

My cousin's daughter is in one of these in San Antonio, Texas. It's sad that these kids are brought over and have to be in these conditions.

[Logan 20,827]

Ugh, I hate crowded spaces. This is horrible.

[MahoganySnitch 67]

My god

[HausOfGuy 10]

get dat green card yalls

[Morphine Prince 109,655]

get dat green card yalls

They know children will be permitted to stay so that's why they come.

[MahoganySnitch 67]

get dat green card yalls

If you're referring to anchor babies, let it be known that the child has to be 21 and economically able enough to sponsor the parent/spouse/child, in which there is an application process. So, they don't get a green card on day one of being here. 

[Flawless 2,236]

sad situation  :(

[Arturo 40,746]

That's horrible, but I'm totally not surprised that they're being treated this way by these people.

[Morphine Prince 109,655]

That's horrible, but I'm totally not surprised that they're being treated this way by these people.

From what I've heard it's that there isn't any space due to an influx of immigrants right now. Wouldn't really blame the authorities this time

[MJHolland 12,725]

1.) If they really are fleeing their countries because of instability, the conditions in those photos looks MUCH better than the place they left behind. Plus, it's not like it's an unsafe place. It's totally secure, heated/cooled, plus food and water.

 

2.) The US has no responsibility in providing shelter for these people at the border. What they were trying to do was very illegal and creates MASSIVE problems domestically. Why should I, as a tax paying citizen, have to pay for the children of criminals who aren't even citizens themselves? Why can't the US gov. just keep all the criminals on the opposite side of the border where there is no shelter for them?

 

It's extremely generous that all these illegals were provided shelter at all! They could have just told them to turn around and go home!

[MJHolland 12,725]

That's horrible, but I'm totally not surprised that they're being treated this way by these people.

it's their parents' fault though... Did they just think that they could walk through the border and be greeted with a freaking Ritz Carlton?! Do they expect the US to accommodate them while they try to perform a serious crime and make sure they aren't too cramped and have a nice pillow to sleep on, even though they've never paid a cent like the rest of us tax payers?!