Since February, 13,000 immigrants have been released onto the streets of San Diego
San Diego (Border report) — According to statistics, about 40 percent of immigrants fail to establish “credible fear” during their initial interview with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in San Diego.
Credible fear is a necessary criterion for migrants to establish how they would be persecuted or harmed if sent home for political beliefs, sexual orientation, religious affiliation and other reasons.
USCIS has provided the Border Report with a spreadsheet Of the 154,595 interviews conducted in San Diego from March 2023 through the first two weeks of March this year, 61,304 migrants failed to establish “a credible fear.”
The data, however, does not detail how many of those asylum seekers were sent back to Mexico or their countries of origin, saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP are responsible for repatriating the immigrants.
According to San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, more than 13,000 asylum-seekers who created a credible fear have been turned away at San Diego’s transit center since last month.
Most are bused to the Iris Avenue Trolley Station a few miles north of the border.
The practice began on Feb. 23 when a “welcome center” for immigrants closed due to a lack of county funding.
At this site, migrants were provided with resources and transportation to continue their journey across the United States to their final destination.
The Border Patrol says that without the center, it cannot detain asylum seekers after processing and is forced to release them in public.
Bus traffic is expected to continue due to the high number of migrants crossing the border illegally.
In February, immigrant apprehensions in the San Diego sector were 31,562, up from 24,709 in January, according to Customs and Border Protection Statistics.
