SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- The San Diego County Board of Supervisors is set to meet Tuesday to discuss ways to support migrants while also stopping street releases around San Diego from happening.
The discussion comes as the county's only migrant welcome center closed on Feb. 22, preventing some 80,000 migrants from being street-released.
Since Feb.6, the county said it has been developing a plan to create a long-term, federally funded migrant transfer site and respite shelter.
The county will recommend the Board of Supervisors approve that plan, add the plan to the county's Legislative Program's “Priority Issues,” and authorize the interim chief administrative officer to apply for any grant funds to make it possible.
County Supervisor Joel Anderson said he's already written President Biden with a request to temporarily close the border, to allow time to secure additional funding and the resources for the long-term migrant welcome center.
On Tuesday, Anderson plans to ask the Board to back him up on requesting temporary closure at the border, by approving sending a second letter to the president on behalf of the entire county.
On Tuesday's agenda, Anderson did not specify how long he's requesting the border to be closed or which migrants it would be closed to. To review the agenda for Tuesday and the items mentioned above, reference pages 19-21 here.
Late Tuesday morning, a representative from Anderson’s office told ABC 10News that the supervisor’s “recommended closure would be for asylum-seeking migrants only, as those are the street releases impacting our homeless shelters and local services.”
The representative also said the supervisor suggested a temporary border closure would be put in place until the federal government implemented a solution to prevent street releases.
While the county quickly pivots with these plans, street releases flood transit centers like at Iris Ave. in Otay Mesa.
There, many community organizations do what they can, including one immigration attorney, who has already volunteered 12 hours helping migrants with guidance, on top of her case load.
Paulina Reyes-Perrariz, an immigration defense lawyer with San Diego's Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said "I just can't see people in the street. It's disheartening to see border patrol just drop them off. When we heard that the migrant center was closing, we asked what the plan was after the 23rd. I did not get a response."
Reyes-Perrariz has already volunteered more than 12 hours this week — on top of her caseload — to help give guidance and information to migrants at the Iris Ave. transit center.
On Tuesday, Reyes-Perrariz helped hundred of migrants get on a bus to go from the Iris Ave. to the Old Town Transit Center, while providing feminine products to the women, or SIM cards to a few, and more.
Some migrants are able to afford taking taxis.
Jama Ali, one taxi cab driver, said "Most of them they have money. Some of them has a friend that calls us to pay the fee of the taxi."
Ali said he only takes about two migrants a day from Iris Ave to the airport.
A few migrants from Mauritania told ABC 10News they have no money or family in the U.S. They're trying to get to a men's shelter in New York, but can't anymore. Through the Google Translate app, they said gangs took advantage of them and took all their money.
Another man from Honduras said he just wants to reconnect with his wife.He said he has no money, and he's looking for a job to buy food and clothes.
ABC 10News also spoke to migrants from China who said they could not be on camera because they were fearful of their lives.
"The Communist party is too powerful," they said.
