The latest count was 3,000 migrants released onto San Diego streets, according to San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, who says he gets his numbers directly from Border Patrol.
Migrants gather belongings from a bus that dropped them off at Iris Avenue Transit Center in San Diego on Feb. 25, 2024. Photo by Adriana Heldiz, CalMatters
Good morning, Inequality Insights readers. I’m CalMatters reporter Wendy Fry.
Last Friday, federal border officials began dropping off thousands of migrants at a south San Diego bus and trolley station near the border. The practice resumed after a county-funded migrant welcome center closed its doors last Thursday, announcing its ‘finite resources have been stretched to the limit’ amid significant increases in migrant arrivals.
The latest count was 3,800 migrants released onto San Diego streets, according to San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, who says he gets his numbers directly from Border Patrol.
In the past six months, nearly 100,000 migrants have arrived in the San Diego region, county officials said, though most have moved on to other U.S. cities. The center received about $6 million from the county to assist people. That money came from leftover federal pandemic aid.
The state helps fund several large San Diego County nonprofits whose missions include serving the most vulnerable migrants released in San Diego. But now county officials are looking for a more long-term solution for everyone, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. They are exploring ways to fund a permanent transfer and respite center to help migrants arriving in the San Diego region reach their final destinations.
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Many of the asylum-seekers who arrived over the weekend had been in Border Patrol custody but were released on what the federal government calls “humanitarian parole.” Some were disoriented and unclear about where they were as they got off buses Saturday and Sunday at the Iris Street trolley station in San Diego. Some weren’t sure if they were still being detained.
“Where am I?” asked Juan Carlos Ortiz, a 28-year-old from Nicaragua, as he rummaged through his backpack for shoelaces that had been removed from his shoes while in custody.
“It feels like we’re starting from zero again,” said volunteer Patricia Mondragon, who stressed the need for continued government assistance. Mondragon said local or state governments could provide bathrooms, cell charging stations and wifi to help disoriented migrants figure out where they are and where they’re going next.
“We really feel strongly there is a continuous role here for a whole-of-government approach, so we can be the welcoming region that we are known to be. We need to help people in a dignified manner,” Mondragon said.
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Menstrual equity. A bill that would require incarcerated people receive free and ready access to menstrual products without having to request them unanimously passed the Assembly’s public safety committee. Currently state prisons, local jails, and juvenile facilities must provide free period products, but “upon request.” The bill’s author, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, a Democrat from Culver City, said a
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Close the prisons? A state watchdog says closing additional prisons could help California balance its budget without slashing social safety nets. The Legislature’s fiscal adviser says California should close five more state prisons and could save $1 billion a year by doing so. Gov. Gavin Newsom has already closed two prisons and ordered shutdowns of two others, but he has not supported any additional closures, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The state has a prison population of 93,900,
with 15,000 empty prison beds, and has predicted another 4,000 vacancies within four years as inmate totals decline.
The California Legislative Black Caucus introduces a 14-bill reparations package at the State Capitol on Feb. 21, 2024. Photo by Fred Greaves for CalMatters.
Reparations fund. State Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat from Inglewood and member of the state’s reparations task force, wants to divert reserve money from an economic relief fund to pay for reparations. The proposed law would require the state’s controller to put 6% of the money transferred to the Special Fund for Economic Uncertainties into a special reparations fund the law would create. The reparations fund would support "policies that indemnify African-American descendants of a chattel enslaved person or descendants of a free black person living in the United States prior to the end of the 19th century," the bill states.
Dreams for the undocumented. Undocumented immigrants in California could have a more affordable path to homeownership if a proposed state law is approved. Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula, a Democrat from Fresno, introduced a bill last month that would expand eligibility requirements for an immensely popular state loan program known as Dreams for All. Arambula’s bill seeks to clarify that the loans for first-time buyers would also be available to undocumented immigrants. The state is aiming to reach a more diverse group of borrowers with the $250 million available in down payment assistance, California Divide reporter Felicia Mello wrote in January.
Environmental injustice. Could a tool addressing environmental injustice inadvertently overlook the state’s most
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College admission. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ended the practice of race-based college admissions, also known as affirmative action. Now, the Sacramento Bee reports on a new bill introduced in the California legislature that seeks to end the practice of giving preferential college admission to people whose family members were alumni or big donors.
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California Divide is a statewide media collaboration to raise awareness and engagement about poverty and income inequality through in-depth, local storytelling and community outreach. The project is based at CalMatters in Sacramento with a team of reporters deployed at news organizations throughout California.
