- A Non-profit center will shut the facility for good Thursday - reflecting the bleak picture across the country as the migrant influx remains sky-high
- The US Border Patrol recorded 2,063,692 encounters with undocumented immigrants in the 2023 fiscal year
- SBCS, formerly known as South Bay Community Services, has announced the closure of its migrant center after just five months of operations
A San Diego migrant center has been forced to close after services were stretched to breaking point with up to 1,500 people flooding in per day.
Non-profit SBCS will shut the facility for good Thursday - reflecting the bleak picture across the country as the numbers of asylum seekers coming to the US remain sky-high.
The US Border Patrol recorded 2,063,692 encounters with undocumented immigrants in the 2023 fiscal year, down just slightly from the record high reached in 2022.
Over Biden's first three years in office, Border Patrol recorded a total of 5,940,511 encounters, a 277 percent increase from the same period during Trump's term, from 2017 to 2019, according to US Customs and Border Patrol data.
SBCS, formerly known as South Bay Community Services, has announced the closure of its migrant center after just five months of operations because the number of people needing help in that time alone has increased dramatically.
A San Diego migrant center has been forced to close after services were stretched to breaking point with up to 1,500 people flooding in per day
A migrant from China holds up his passport and paperwork as he is photographed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in an open-air holding area as they prepare to board a bus to a processing facility near to the small, desert San Diego County border community of Jacumba Hot Springs in December 2023
'As the number of migrants arriving at the center has increased significantly over the last few weeks, our finite resources have been stretched to the limit, leading to the closure of the center on February 22,' CEO Kathie Lembo said in a statement.
'When we accepted the challenge of this work in October of last year, we knew two things: that it spoke to the heart of our mission, and that it was for a limited time.'
'Leading this effort has been an honor. We will continue working with the County and our partners in hopes of identifying additional resources to keep the center open, preventing hundreds of individuals a day from being stranded in San Diego without the support they need to continue their journey.'
San Diego County gave SBCS $6 million for the welcome center designed to keep it going for six months from the start of October.
'With the receipt of that money there was expectations that it would be used until the end of March, so ending a month early does raise concerns and questions for me,' Lembo said.
A group of Central American migrants - travelling in a caravan - are seen after crossing the Mexico-US border fence to San Diego County in 2018
A Central American migrant, jumps over the US-Mexico border fence from Tijuana to San Diego in the US as seen from Tijuana, Baja California state, Mexico
Migrants are seen near the San Diego border as Title 42 regulations come to an end
A border patrol agent patrols along a construction site for the secondary border fence which follows the length of the primary border fence that separates the United States and Mexico in the San Diego Sector on August 22, 2019
SBCS has been providing migrants with resources and information to link them with sponsor families.
It comes as tensions between the Biden administration and Texas Governor Greg Abbott reach boiling point over how to handle the deluge at the southern border.
On Saturday, Abbott announced the construction of a military base along Eagle Pass in a bid to block migrants entering from Mexico.
The camp will allow Texas to 'amass a large army in a very strategic area' and 'increase the speed and flexibility of the Texas National Guard to be able to respond to crossings,' Abbott said.
The camp will be constructed in phases of 300 beds every 30 days with the first phase expected to be completed by April, said Maj. General Suelzer, the head of the Texas Military Department.
Texas is starting construction on new 80-acre military base camp in Eagle Pass for 2,300 soldiers as Gov. Greg Abbott promises to 'amass a large army' to combat migrant invasion
An aerial view shows an immigrant group trying to cross the Texan border despite heightened security measures in Eagle Pass, Texas, earlier this month
A group of migrants are processed by Border Patrol after crossing the river illegally near Eagle Pass, Texas
The complex will include three command posts, weapons storage rooms and a helicopter pad, he said.
It will also feature a 700-person dining facility, on-site movie theaters, workout areas and medical services, officials said. The state also intends to install more barriers north and south of Shelby Park, officials said.
'This will increase the ability for a larger number of Texas military department personnel in Eagle Pass to operate more effectively and more efficiently,' said the governor.
'Because of the magnitude of what we're doing, because of the need to sustain and actually expand our efforts ... it's essential that we build this base camp,' Abbott said.
The camp will allow Texas to 'amass a large army in a very strategic area' and 'increase the speed and flexibility of the Texas National Guard to be able to respond to crossings,' he explained.
Abbott said the camp will improve living conditions for soldiers who are deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border, an issue that troubled the Guard's mission during the early months of Operation Lone Star.
Abbott, a supporter of former president and Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, accuses the Biden administration of allowing an 'invasion' of illegal migrants at the country's southern border.
Soldiers were seen loading excess wire into a truck at the border crossing at Shelby Park in Eagle Pass last month
He also accuses the White House of failing to take action against the drug cartels that, according to him, control the border on the Mexican side.
Border control is a federal responsibility in the United States, but in January the Texas National Guard moved into Shelby Park, north of the campgrounds overlooking the river, as part of Abbott's expanding border mission.
Abbott has also installed some 100 miles of barbed wire along the Rio Grande, a measure that the Biden administration is challenging in court.
The US Supreme Court has temporarily authorized the federal government to remove the barbed wire, but Texas has continued to install it while the dispute proceeds.
'Having the soldiers located right here, right by the river, they're going to have the ability to more quickly be able to construct that razor wire barrier,' said Abbott on Friday, praising the 'effectiveness' of the device.
Texas has also recently passed a law allowing its forces to arrest illegal migrants at the border, a power normally reserved for the federal government.
