Use of force incident in commercial parking lot in Calexico
CALEXICO — On Friday, February 23 at 3:30 a.m., Calexico patrol officers responded to a welfare check of an individual lying in the parking lot outside Fito’s Cafe located in the 300 block of Paulin Avenue.
According to a press release from the Calexico Police Department, the concern was that vehicles entering/exiting the parking lot could potentially run over the subject who was later identified as Daniel CONSTANTINO. Upon arrival, officers encountered Constantino who appeared to be asleep, and attempted to wake him.
Upon doing so, Constantino without warning sprang to his feet and lunged at one of the officers and a physical altercation ensued, the release reads. As officers attempted to restrain Constantino, Constantino grabbed at one of the officer’s taser and holster that retains the officer’s firearm. After further struggle, officers were able to gain control of Constantino and take him into custody for resisting with violence, battery upon a peace officer, and possession of a controlled substance – Fentanyl. As a result of the struggle, both Constantino and the arresting officers sustained injuries and had to be treated at a local hospital. Constantino was later released from the hospital pending criminal charges.
SAN DIEGO ( AP) — Hundreds of migrants were dropped off Friday at a San Diego bus stop instead of at a reception center that had been serving as a staging area because it ran out of local funding sooner than expected, showing how even the largest city on the country’s southern border is struggling to cope with the unprecedented influx of people.
Migrants who previously had a safe place to charge phones, use the bathroom, eat a meal and arrange to head elsewhere in the U.S. were now left on the street as migrant aid groups scrambled to help out as best they could with makeshift arrangements.
Border Patrol buses carrying migrants from Senegal, China, Ecuador, Guatemala and many other countries arrived outside a transit center. Migrant aid groups said they would be bused from there to a parking lot where they could charge their phones and get a ride to the airport. The vast majority planned to spend only a few hours in San Diego before taking a flight or having someone pick them up.
“Are we in San Diego?” asked Gabriel Guzman, 30, a painter from the Dominican Republic who was released after crossing the border in remote mountains on Thursday. He was told to appear in June in an immigration court in Boston, where he hopes to earn money to send home to his three children.
Abd Boudeah, of Mauritania, flew to Tijuana, Mexico, through Nicaragua and followed other migrants to an opening in the border wall, where he surrendered to agents Thursday after walking about eight hours. The former molecular engineering student said he fled persecution for being gay and planned to settle in Chicago with a cousin who had been in the U.S. for 20 years. “I’ve dreamed about this (moment) a lot, and thank God I’m here,” Boudeah, 23, said in flawless English.
Volunteers gave instructions in English, Spanish and French to small groups, all of them single men and women. They used translation apps for other languages.
“We’re going to cross the street together and line up,” a volunteer said into his phone, which then translated it into Hindi for a group of men from India.
“Tired from the road,” Alikan Rdiyer, 31, of Kazakhstan, said in Russian as he waited for instructions to give to a friend from Los Angeles who was going to pick him up. The Border Patrol gave him a notice to appear in immigration court in August 2025 in Philadelphia — a city he hadn’t heard of.