SAN DIEGO — A San Diego County-funded migrant center received 1,500 migrants Thursday, the highest number its received so far in just one day.
"We thought a couple weeks ago when we got 780 [migrants] it was the highest we ever had. Yesterday, we thought 800 was the highest. But we were informed early yesterday it would be 1,500 today," said Kathy Lembo, CEO of SBCS, the organization running the center.
The center is located in the mid-city area. Lembo asked us not to disclose its location for security reasons. SBCS picks up the migrants from processing centers in Otay Mesa where they've already been screened by border patrol.
"We were just on the phone with border patrol, and they see the numbers remaining at 1000 a day, for the next couple of days," said Lembo.
CBS 8 was there Thursday as four busloads of migrants, including women and children, arrived. Lembo said the buses will be arriving throughout the day.
"We feel pretty good about today," she said. "We knew ahead of time. The county brought staff in."
She said other organizations and volunteers have also stepped in to help.
Lembo said they added IT support Thursday to handle the high volume of people using Wi-Fi. At the center, the migrants charge their phones and get something to eat, before heading to their final destinations.
"This [center] has minimal impact on the community, it's self-contained and its gated," said Lembo.
The county paid $3 million to get the center up and running back in October, but funding is only expected to last until the end of the year.
CBS 8 learned County Supervisor Joel Anderson sent a letter to the board Wednesday, asking for an additional $3 million to keep the center operating. According to Anderson, between September and November, 42,000 migrants have been released in San Diego County.
"[The migrants] are going to come into our community no matter what," said Lembo. "If we didn't have the welcome center, they would be dropped off at the transit centers."
Lembo said since the center opened in Oct., 26,000 migrants have come through the doors. She said about 5% remain in the San Diego area, the rest head to other parts of the country.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors will vote on the additional funding for the center during its meeting on Dec. 5.
Supervisor Joel Anderson released this statement to CBS 8 Thursday afternoon:
“More than 40,000 street releases in our community over three months carried out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection is unacceptable. Since the County stepped up to fund the processing center in October, we’ve reduced that number to zero. My constituents in El Cajon do not want the street releases to resume, so I’m grateful to Chairwoman Vargas for partnering with me to continue funding the operation that efficiently processes legal asylum-seekers and moves them onto their final destination outside of San Diego County."
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