San Diego County officials, immigration advocates call for federal help with anticipated migrant surge
Excerpt from ABC 10
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"We may have as many as a thousand people a week being dropped off in my district to fend for themselves from immigration," said San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson.
Anderson represents District 2, which includes East County. He said the county is looking at more than $5 million to be able to address the potential migrant surge.
He sent a letter to Biden, asking for funding to help with adequate shelters and to deploy FEMA to help with intake.
"We're not making the statement on whether this is good policy or bad policy, we're trying to just deal with it in our community so that our parks, our transportation centers, aren't just overwhelmed with people that need housing," Anderson said.
Anderson is also calling on the president to provide the direction necessary to stop the “street releases” of migrants dropped off by U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel at local transit stations.
"Last fall, San Diego’s migrant shelters reached capacity, and between 800 and 1,000 asylum seekers were released by the federal government at San Diego transit centers throughout the County – with no shelter or services," the press release said.