Over three hundred migrants have crash-landed at San Diego International Airport as the border city was hit by a flood of pedestrians.
Migrants staying overnight at the airport are now commonplace, but the number has increased dramatically in recent weeks.
On Thursday, a bus dropped off dozens of immigrants at Terminal Two, Fox 5 reported.
Some of them reportedly arrived several hours or days before their scheduled flights, as local organizations have said they believe the people were transported there after being processed by Border Patrol.
Volunteer Roni Elias, from a support group called We all We Got SD, said: “Our biggest concern is all the children that are there and the vulnerable populations that are sleeping there.”
Over 300 migrants have camped at San Diego International Airport in recent weeks
A volunteer is seen distributing supplies to migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, California
Elias often visits the airport to personally deliver meals, hygiene products and water to the migrants.
She said her organization normally brings 50 sandwiches and food packages for people, but she knew that wasn’t nearly enough when she counted 308 people staying with us last week.
Many of the migrants can be seen sitting on the airport floor while they eat and then continue their journey to visit friends and family across the country.
In a statement to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the San Diego Airport said, “Since late last year, San Diego International Airport has experienced a significant increase in the number of migrants using the airport to get to their next destination.”
“We continue to coordinate with migrant volunteer groups and non-profit organizations who help their clients navigate the airport and will continue to do so.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a 67.3 percent increase in migrants compared to last year, as the number rose from 17,875 to 29,904 this year.
“It’s really heartbreaking to walk away and know they’re going to be sleeping on the floor,” Elias told Fox 5.
An unprecedented number of Indian immigrants crossed the U.S. southern border in October, and new federal statistics show 42,000 were intercepted last year alone.
Another 1,600 more migrants crossed the northern border as the growing phenomenon has brought in four times as many people as the last three years combined.
Migrants from Texas are seen charging their phones after being dropped off from a train station in San Diego on October 10
The Biden administration has earmarked $1.6 billion of its roughly $14 billion border proposal to hire 1,600 new asylum officers
Almost all Indian migrants then turned themselves in to the border police, who treated them as asylum seekers due to the recent unrest surrounding India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
There was a recent 550 percent increase in migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Canada border, with 6,000 crossers from 79 countries caught.
Senior Border Patrol Agent Robert Garcia said most of the migrants come from Mexico, India, Venezuela, Haiti and Romania.
The northern border stretches more than 5,000 miles and has only 115 ports of entry, meaning large parts of it are understaffed, officials say.
Nearly two-thirds of southbound migrants apprehended by U.S. border officials in the Swanton sector are from Mexico, according to CBP figures.
The surge in migrants, meanwhile, underscores the scale of the humanitarian crisis at the border and the political challenge it poses to President Joe Biden as he seeks re-election in 2024.
In October, an unprecedented number of Indian immigrants entered the U.S. southern border
President Joe Biden has insisted that any long-term solution to the US refugee crisis requires help from Congress
His administration has also proposed about $14 billion for the border in a $106 billion spending package announced last month.
Biden has insisted that any long-term solution to the U.S. refugee crisis requires help from Congress.
The proposal also included $1.6 billion to hire 1,600 new asylum officers and processing staff, expected to double the number of people working on asylum cases.
Organizations like Elias’s are working on plans to make the travel process more efficient so that the influx of people don’t have to spend the night at the airport to wait for their upcoming flights.