In a remote corner of southeastern San Diego County, intrepid kindness has taken place amid a sprawling immigration dispute that not only will set the future course of border enforcement, but could affect geopolitical dynamics around the world.
For weeks, volunteers have been bringing food, water and various supplies to migrants at an open-air detention camp in Jacumba Hot Springs just north of the border.
The migrants, from as close as Mexico and as far away as China, have been held temporarily in a dreary location exposed to cold temperatures. Many are regularly taken away to processing areas for their asylum requests and are replaced by other border-crossers.
Immigrant rights groups have filed two complaints, contending the Border Patrol is violating federal standards by holding migrants in the outdoor camps.
The slice of local humanity, courtesy of the volunteers, has received national attention but nevertheless has been overshadowed by the fallout from a crush of cross-border migration that seems destined to continue.
Not far from the camp, CNN talked with property owners frustrated about migrants coming across their land, sometimes camping on it and leaving trash.
These are front-line scenes in a political struggle that may determine how migrants will be dealt with — and whether U.S. aid will flow to Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan.
That foreign aid, along with billions to bolster border security, is part of a proposed spending package that is tied up over immigration policy in Congress. Failure to act not only will keep that money in limbo, but force a shutdown of the federal government in the coming weeks.
For now, House Republicans say they won’t budge from the bill they ed last year. House Resolution 2 would make it harder to qualify for asylum, turn away more migrants at the border, keep many seeking asylum waiting in Mexico and continue construction of former President Donald Trump’s border wall. The bill has been a nonstarter for Democrats.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., emphasized the GOP House position when he led dozens of Republicans on a visit to the border at Eagle , Texas, on Wednesday.
Bipartisan negotiations have been taking place in the Senate over the spending bill, and Democrats seem ready to give some ground to Republicans. Yet despite comments from both sides that progress is being made, several House Republicans pledged to reject whatever comes out of the talks if the immigration component falls short of HR 2.
Whether that line in the sand shifts as a government shutdown approaches remains to be seen. But House Republicans have made clear they see immigration as a big liability for Biden and Democrats in the November elections.
History does not lend optimism for big immigration deals getting done in Congress. Even bipartisan coalitions could not push ambitious proposals across the finish line. However, the focus now is almost entirely on enforcement, which in the past usually has been paired with other measures such as legalizing undocumented immigrants already in the U.S., including providing a path to citizenship.
Rarely, if ever, has immigration legislation been tied to such far-reaching concerns as aid to allies engaged in wars.
The immigration debate often is infused with scurrilous claims and misinformation.
In Texas, Johnson said, “These are not people who are fleeing and are looking for asylum that are in fear for their lives,” and claimed that “hardened criminals” were taking advantage of lax border enforcement policies to wreak havoc in the United States, according to The New York Times.
In a visit to the Jacumba Hot Springs camp, county Supervisor Jim Desmond said San Diego County taxpayer dollars were being spent on tents, food and other items for migrants there. He later went on social media to it that was false.
As the political battle rages, impacts of immigration — and the disputes about it — are being felt across the country.
Border enforcement resources have been stretched thin, resulting in reallocation of agents to assist with processing asylum requests. That was the explanation for the temporary closure of the PedWest border crossing in San Ysidro, which partially reopened Thursday.
Also on Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams sued 17 charter bus companies used by Texas to send migrants to New York, seeking reimbursement for more than $700 million the city has spent providing shelter and other services.
Over the holidays, buses bound for New York instead dropped migrants off in New Jersey to avoid New York restrictions on such efforts.
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice sued Texas over a law that allows local police to arrest migrants who enter the country illegally.
And on Tuesday, the Biden istration filed an emergency appeal asking the Supreme Court to allow border agents to continue to remove razor wire Texas has put up along the border. An appellate court judge last month ordered the federal government to stop taking it down.
The istration in both cases says immigration enforcement authority belongs with the federal government, not the states.
Meanwhile, Republicans in the House this week plan to begin formal impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of border policies.
The escalation in political and legal fights comes amid what border officials say are a record number of border-crossing apprehensions — topping 10,000 on some days last month.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Mayorkas recently traveled to Mexico City seeking assistance from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to stem the tide of people heading toward the U.S.
Since then, Mexico has restarted flights to repatriate Venezuelan migrants back to their home country.
Blinken said the U.S. and Mexico also would seek to bolster a sponsorship initiative for Venezuelan, Cuban, Nicaraguan and Haitian migrants.
Just last week, Mexican authorities began breaking up a large migrant caravan that crossed its southern border, according to National Public Radio.
But many of the estimated 5,000 people in the caravan were still trying to head north.
What they said
Shea Benton (@SheaBenton), government relations director at Family Health Centers of San Diego.
“It’s incredibly San Diegan of me to be freezing in a normal dress shirt and suit when it’s under 60. I’ll own that. And I know I’m not the only one.”
