http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/02/us/california-immigrant-transfers/index.html?hpt=hp_t1Showdown: California town turns away buses of detained immigrants
CNN) -- The national controversy over a surge of Central American immigrants illegally crossing the U.S. border established a new battleground this week in a Southern California small town where angry crowds thwarted detained migrants from entering their community.
In a faceoff Tuesday with three buses carrying the migrants behind screened-off windows, the demonstrators chanted "Go back home!" and "USA" and successfully forced the coaches to leave Murrieta, CNN affiliate KFMB reported.
The buses instead took the 140 or so undocumented immigrants to U.S. processing centers at least 80 miles away, in the San Diego and El Centro areas, federal officials say.
Counter-protesters squared off with the demonstrators, and a shouting match erupted over the nation's immigration system, which recently has been overwhelmed with a tide of Central American minors illegally entering the United States alone or with other children.
A mix of poverty, violence and smugglers' false promises is prompting the Central American inflow.
Unlike undocumented Mexican migrants, who are often immediately deported, the U.S. government detains and processes the Central Americans, who are eventually released and given a month to report to immigration offices. Many never show up and join the nation's 11 million undocumented population, says the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing Border Patrol agents.
The Latin American immigrants rejected by Murrieta protesters were initially held in Texas, where U.S. facilities are so overflowing that detainees are sent to other states for processing.
The government doesn't have the room to shelter the children with adults: there's only one family immigration detention center, in Pennsylvania. To assist the unaccompanied children, President Barack Obama's administration opened shelters last month on three military bases because federal facilities more designed for adults were overrun with minors.
Tuesday's busloads of detained Central American immigrants didn't include any unaccompanied minors, said Murrieta Police Chief Sean Hadden, who put the number of protesters at 125. The children on the buses were apparently in the company of relatives or other adults, said an official with the National Border Patrol Council.
'Deport! Deport!'
The protesters, who shouted "Impeach Obama!" and "Deport! Deport!" confronted the buses a day after the town posted a notice on its website: "Murrieta Opposes Illegal Immigrant Arrival."
"This is a failure to enforce federal law at the federal level," Mayor Alan Long said in a statement Monday about the pending arrival of the 140 immigrants to the U.S. Border Patrol station. "Murrieta continues to object to the transfer of illegal immigrants to the local border patrol office."
The local controversy will continue with a town hall meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m PT Wednesday. The U.S. government is scheduled to send another group of undocumented immigrants to Murrieta for processing on Friday, the union official for Border Patrol agents said.
Chief Hadden also said he was told to expect 140 immigrants every 72 hours, with the next group scheduled to arrive on Friday, the Fourth of July.
Earlier Wednesday, immigration rights advocates denounced the mayor's statement and the protesters.
"It is deplorable that people espousing anti-immigrant hate language created unnecessary tension and fear for immigrant mothers and their children," Pedro Rios, a community representative of the San Diego Immigrant Rights Consortium, said in a statement. "Even more concerning is that elected officials in the City of Murrieta instigated this tension. Mothers and their children on these buses have suffered through enough trauma."
At a Murrieta City Council meeting Tuesday night, Long seemed more conciliatory than his statement posted a day earlier on the city's website. Long thanked police and others.
"Please remember these are human beings that are fleeing the violence in their home countries," Long said. "The problem is that they need to come into this country the legal way."
Journey from Texas
The U.S. government earlier flew the 140 Central American immigrants from south Texas to San Diego. Federal agents were busing them to Murrieta for processing at the Border Patrol station when the standoff took place Tuesday, CNN affiliates reported.
After the buses turned around, the 140 immigrants were taken to the U.S. Border Patrol's San Ysidro station in San Diego, said Ron Zermeno of the National Border Patrol Council
On Wednesday, Zermeno told CNN that at least 136 immigrants were fed and screened.
Among the group, 10 children were taken to local hospitals, though it's unclear why, Zermeno said. Seven more children were diagnosed with active scabies, an itchy and highly contagious skin disease. Those children are being kept separate from the others at the San Ysidro station, he said. Seventeen of the immigrants were taken to the Boulevard station in eastern San Diego County, Zermeno said.
The U.S. government is struggling to detain and accommodate an influx of undocumented immigrants, particularly a wave of unaccompanied children from the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. The U.S. government doesn't have enough beds, food or sanitary facilities.
Authorities estimate 60,000 to 80,000 children without parents will cross the border this year in what the White House has called an "immediate humanitarian crisis."
To help relieve crowded facilities in Texas, undocumented immigrants are now being sent elsewhere to be processed.
But Zermeno contended that processing immigrants, rather than enforcing the borders, is only making the situation worse.
"My concern is they are going to be eating in the same holding cells as someone sitting five feet away using the bathroom," he said.
Intense debate
The furor in Murrieta illustrated the conflict between protecting the borders and ensuring the safety of detained immigrants and children.
Protester Ellen Meeks said the country's identity has eroded with an influx of undocumented immigrants.
"I just wish America would be America again because it's not, and it's not just pointed to the Hispanics," Meeks said. "Everybody needs to go through the legal ways."
Other protesters told CNN affiliate KGTV said they wanted immigrants to follow the legal process to enter the United States.
"Everybody that wants to come to this nation is entitled to, but they should come the right way," Bob Cuccio told the news outlet.
"You bring in all these children and they're going to take over our schools," Bel Reeves added. "What's going to happen to the kids that were born and raised here?"
But immigration rights advocate Enrique Morones likened the migration to a refugee crisis and suggested racial antipathy was motivating protesters.
"If these children were from Canada, we would not be having this interview," Morones said. "The parents have had enough. They are saying, 'If I don't send my child north, they are going to die.'"
Last month, the Obama administration unveiled a plan to spend almost $100 million in aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to help reintegrate the undocumented migrants whom the United States will deport, and to help keep them in their home countries.
The administration also will set aside $161.5 million this year for the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) programs in an effort to "help stem migration flows as well as address the root cause of the migration," the White House said.
The Obama administration has accused syndicates in Latin America of waging a deliberate campaign of misinformation about relocating to the United States that has caused people in poor Central American countries and Mexico to risk their lives to cross the U.S. border illegally
