There has been a dramatic drop in migrant arrivals on the border
In the sleeping quarters, green cots that were once occupied by hundreds of parents and children on a single night were stacked against the wall. For dinner on Tuesday, only two tables were set for the handful of families staying at the large shelter near the California-Mexico border.
At its peak, the facility run by Jewish Family Service of San Diego held more than 300 migrants dropped off by U.S. immigration authorities. Some days this spring were so busy that new arrivals had to be sent to overflow sites.
Now, the shelter is almost eerily empty. The number of people arriving there has plunged in recent weeks amid a precipitous decline in arrivals along the southern border, where the Department of Homeland Security said that apprehensions dropped 28% in June.
Customs and Border Protection authorities encountered 104,344 people crossing from Mexico in June, compared with 144,278 in May, which had marked a 13-year monthly high. At the nonprofit shelter here in San Diego, the effects have been dramatic. On Friday, not a single migrant arrived at the facility, the first time this had occurred since it opened in October.
“We have been startled by the stark decline that happened virtually overnight,” said Kate Clark, senior director of immigration services at the shelter. “U.S. immigration authorities are not bringing families who have been processed to the shelter because they are returning them to Mexico.”
The Mexican city of Tijuana across the border, meanwhile, is still full of migrants — many of them turned back at the border under the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” program.
The flow of migrants normally dips during the summer, when temperatures climb into the triple digits along some parts of the border. But the precipitous decline last month could signal a new trend.
“The United States policy to return people to Mexico and the pressure on Mexico to stop the migration are having a big impact,” said Daniel Bribiescas, an immigration lawyer in Tijuana.
The policy calling for returning migrants to Mexico if they had arrived at the southern border by land, announced in late January, was intended to prevent asylum-seekers from spending years in the United
States while they await the outcome of their immigration court cases.
More than 18,000 migrants, including asylumseekers, have been returned to Tijuana and other Mexican cities since the policy was implemented, according to Mexico’s National Migration Institute.
‘‘ THE UNITED STATES POLICY TO RETURN PEOPLE TO MEXICO AND THE PRESSURE ON MEXICO TO STOP THE MIGRATION ARE HAVING A BIG IMPACT. Daniel Bribiescas, an immigration lawyer in Tijuana.