SAN DIEGO — We're just days away from a government shutdown which could impact the migrant crisis in San Diego. If Congress doesn't agree on a budget for the new fiscal year, the government will shut down at 12:01 Sunday morning.
"It seems extremely likely this will happen and the way out is unclear," said Stephen Goggin, an assistant professor of political science at San Diego State University.
Goggin says there have been about 20 government shutdowns since the 1970's, so they're pretty common, with the exception of the one looming right now, which he calls unique.
"Normally, they last a few weeks or a few days. The longest one was a few years ago but in this case it's relatively unique because the divisions are not between the President and Congress, but it's within the republican conference within the house and their inability to get something that satisfies both the more moderate and the more right wing part of the party," said Goggin.
Millions of jobs and crucial federal programs are at stake, many of which are directly tied to handling the current influx of migrants coming across our border.
San Diego County supervisor Jim Desmond estimates 7,500 migrants have been dropped in San Diego over the past two weeks.
On September 26th, the Board of Supervisors declared a humanitarian crisis.
Goggin says if a shutdown happens, Border Patrol agents will still be expected to work, but won't get paid until a budget is passed, at which point they'll receive back pay as well.
So, to the public, it may appear to be business as usual.
But, here's what won't be - immigration court cases.
They will be put on hold unless it involves someone who is currently detained, which the majority of migrants crossing over are not.
“Asylum requests and things like that will likely be shut down on the back end and so it could lead to a bit of a backlog and create some issues there,” said Goggin.
Goggin says if a shutdown happens and is resolved quickly, the impact won't be as bad.
But, the last shutdown happened in 2019, and that one lasted over a month.
If that happens again, the migrant crisis could become even worse.
“Again, the real question is how long will this last. If it's a day or a week or so, the backlog won't build up that much and won't be much of an issue. But, if it goes longer as we saw a few years ago in 2019, problems can begin to crop up,” said Goggin.
Watch Live: SD Supervisors vote unanimously, declare humanitarian crisis at the border (Sept 26, 2023)