- Title: USA: Advocates for migrants rally in San Diego
- Date: 2nd July 2014
- Summary: MURRIETA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 1, 2014) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ANTI-IMMIGRATION PROTESTERS HOLDING SIGNS IN FRONT OF BUSES TRANSPORTING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS CLOSE UP OF ANTI-IMMIGRATION PROTESTERS YELLING AT BUSES TRANSPORTING UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS PAN FROM PROTESTERS STANDING IN FRONT OF BUSES TO THREE BUSES STOPPED IN THE ROAD
- Embargoed: 17th July 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVADLKU6MR0B449137D6PCRXY7KY
- Story Text: Representatives from the pro-migrant group Border Angels call for compassion and inclusion for migrants who were blocked as they arrived on three buses carrying undocumented Central American families to a U.S. Border Patrol station.
A day after protesters shouting anti-immigration slogans blocked the arrival of three buses carrying undocumented Central American families to a U.S. Border Patrol station, advocates for the migrants rallied at a news conference in San Diego to voice support for them.
Enrique Morones is the Founder and Executive Director of Border Angels, an organization that works for the inclusion of migrants crossing the border.
"Do we want the children to come to San Diego? Are we going to love those children and protect those children?" Morones said as supporters cheered.
"It is very sad, it is very sad, to see what is taking place. These children, these children are our children," he added.
The migrants, a group of around 140 adults and children, were sent to California to be assigned case numbers and undergo background checks before most were likely to be released under limited supervision to await deportation proceedings, U.S. immigration officials said.
But plans to bring the immigrants to a Border Patrol outpost in Murrieta, 60 miles (100 km) north of San Diego, sparked an outcry from town mayor Alan Long, who said the migrants posed a public safety threat to his community.
"I went to Murietta yesterday. I wasn't planning to go there but I went there just to observe, and what I saw was one of the worst things that I have ever seen in my life," Morones said.
"How is it possible that these children that simply want to live, these are refugees, these are migrants that are escaping a very violent situation in Central America. They simply want to live and that's how they are greeted, with pounding on the buses, blocking up to three buses that were coming into Murietta, and I place a lot of that blame on the Murietta Police Department," he added.
The group is part of a growing wave of families and unaccompanied minors fleeing Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and streaming by the thousands into the United States by way of human trafficking networks through Mexico.
Most have shown up in Texas, overwhelming detention and processing facilities there.
The surge has left U.S. immigration officials scrambling to handle mass numbers of Central American migrants who, by law, the government cannot immediately deport, as they normally could illegal border crossers of Mexican or Canadian origin.
More than 52,000 unaccompanied children from Central America have been caught trying to sneak over the U.S.-Mexico border since October, double the number from the same period the year before, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures. Thousands more were apprehended with their parents.
The group caught up in Tuesday's confrontation arrived by plane at midday in San Diego from Texas, where they had been apprehended while trying to cross the border, and were put on three unmarked buses for the ride to Murrieta. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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