Refugee Voices

NEED HELP? RESOURCE GUIDE FOR REFUGEES

Find resources for refugees throughout San Diego County by clicking this link. Many services are available including help with resettlement, immigration, education, jobs, literacy, healthcare, and much more. 

You can also find an interactive map here.


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MIGRANT CENTER CLOSES DESPITE SURGE IN IMMIGRANTS; DROP-OFFS AT TRANSIT STATIONS RESUMES

By Miriam Raftery

Photo courtesy of ECM news partner KGTV 10 News.

February 25, 2024 (San Diego) – Bipartisan calls for federal help are escalating after closure of a local migrant welcoming center due to lack of funds amid an unprecedented surge in migrants from around the world.

The migrant center run by SBCS (formerly known as South Bay Community Center) closed its doors Thursday night.  Kathie Lembo, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, stated,  “As the number of migrants arriving at the center has increased significantly over the last few weeks, our finite resources have been stretched to the limit.”

San Diego County had allocated $6 million to fund the welcome center as an alternative to Border Patrol dropping off massive numbers of migrants at transit centers. The welcome center had provided temporary shelter, food, Wifi connections, and travel information for the vast majority of migrants seeking to rejoin family members elsewhere in the United States. The funds were expected to last until March.

But with more than 100,000 migrants arriving in our region since September, the center ran out of funds.  Now Border Patrol, which lacks sufficient facilities to detain migrants, is once again dropping many of them off at transit centers to fend for themselves, or accept help from volunteers.


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JANUARY SEES SHARP DROP IN BORDER CROSSINGS AFTER A RECORD-SETTING DECEMBER

 
 
February 18, 2024 (Washington, D.C.) -- Border encounters plunged from record highs of more than 300,000 in December to 176,205 in January, a 42% drop that Customs and Border Protection attributed to enforcement efforts and a traditional seasonal drop.


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ALL THE BAD GIRLS WEAR RUSSIAN ACCENTS: POEMS OF A UKRAINIAN JEWISH REFUGEE GRANTED ASYLUM IN THE U.S.

By Jane Muschenetz

 

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

 

February 14, 2024 (San Diego) -- Written with humor as well as heart ache, Jane Muschenetz touches on her raw feelings of becoming a refugee. At the age of 10, during the pandemic and the Russian invasion of her home country, Ukraine, she was transplanted to San Diego. 

 

Muschenetz reflects on themes that connect to identity. She then shares her growth as she acclimated to her new country, went to MIT, married, and became a mother. 


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AS IMMIGRATION DEBATE HEATS UP, MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS IN DECEMBER SET RECORD

By Ian McKinney, Cronkite News

Photo, left: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, backed by fellow Democrats on Monday, criticizes a Republican plan to open impeachment hearings this week against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. With Jeffries, from left, are Reps. Lou Correa of California, Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Dan Goldman of New York and Glenn Ivey of Maryland. (Photo by Ian McKinney/Cronkite News)

January 30, 2024 (Washington, D.C.) -- Border officials said they encountered more than 300,000 migrants at the southern border in December, setting a one-month record that pushed the total for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 to 785,422.

The continuing surge in migrants comes as debate on immigration is heating up in Washington. Senators this week are expected to unveil a sweeping, bipartisan immigration reform bill that is already being called “dead on arrival” in the House, where a committee is set to start impeachment proceedings Tuesday against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.


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RELIEF FUND FOR UKRAINIAN CHURCH FLOODED IN SPRING VALLEY; HUMANITARIAN SUPPLIES FOR UKRAINE ALSO DAMAGED

By Miriam Raftery

Photo courtesy of ECM news partner 10 News

January 26, 2024 (Spring Valley) - St. Mary’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Spring Valley has been a place of worship for Ukrainians across San Diego since 1960. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, the small church has welcomed and helped many Ukrainian refugees—and has also gathered humanitarian relief supplies to send to war-torn Ukraine.


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ASYLUM SEEKERS FACE NEW REQUIREMENT TO FIND THEIR OWN INTERPRETERS

 

by Adriana Gonzalez-Chavez • Cronkite News

A record 2.47 million migrants were encountered at the United States’ southern border in fiscal year 2023, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (File photo by Alexia Faith/Cronkite News)

January 22, 2024 -- Asylum seekers who don’t speak English are once again required to bring their own interpreters to interviews for U.S. immigration services, and some worry it will be a hindrance for those fleeing persecution in their home countries.

The September rule change reverted to a pre-pandemic requirement that put the onus on non-English-speaking migrants to find and pay for an interpreter.


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NEW U.S. BORDER PATROL STATION TO OPEN 2025 IN DULZURA


Facility will house migrants,  serve as control center for enforcement  


By Michael Howard

 

An artist rendering of the new Dulzura Border Patrol facility slated to open in September 2024. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Border Patrol

 

January 20, 2024 (Dulzura, CA) –  A new $74 million U.S. Border Patrol station has begun construction and is slated to open in Dulzura next year, spokesperson Michael Scappechio said in an emailed statement this week.

 

“This new station will provide CBP law enforcement personnel with much-needed facilities, technologies, and other infrastructure carefully designed to meet the demands and challenges of an ever-evolving border environment,” Scappechio wrote.

 

The station will be used to process and house migrants short-term, as well as serve as a control center for border patrol enforcement activities. The facility sits on an approximately 9-acre plot of land and will include a helipad for air support, fuel stations, and dog kennels.


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MEDI-CAL IMMIGRATION STATUS EXCLUSION ENDS

 

By  Suzanne Potter, California News Service

Suzanne Potter

January 9,2024 (Sacramento) -- Starting January 1st, California became the first state to cover health care for all income-eligible people regardless of their age or immigration status. 


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COUNTY SUPPORTS FEDERAL INITIATIVE TO PROTECT IMMIGRANT MILITARY FAMILIES

January 8, 2024 (San Diego) -- The County’s Office of Military and Veterans Affairs is promoting a federal immigration program that supports immigrant families of U.S. service members.  

The Military Parole in Place (MPIP) program provides some members of U.S. military families temporary permission to remain in the country while seeking permanent residency.  

The temporary immigration status allows spouses, widow(er)s, parents and children of U.S. service members to stay, work and travel freely in the United States. The Board of Supervisors previously approved promoting the program to reaffirm the County’s support for service members and their families. 

“Families can be divided when a loved one serves in the U.S. armed forces,” said Rick Wanne, Director of County Self Sufficiency Services. “This program allows them to be reunited in our country and recognizes our military men and women for their honorable and selfless service.”


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COUNTY SUPERVISORS APPROVE $3M IN FUNDING FOR MIGRANT SERVICES - BUT TOWNS CLOSEST TO BORDER BREECHES NOT ALLOCATED FUNDS

 

By Rebecca Person

 

December 13, 2023 (Jacumba Hot Springs, CA) -- Local volunteers in isolated East county border towns Jacumba and Boulevard are seeking support for humanitarian aid for migrants via a new crowd-funding campaign.  Volunteers set up this fundraising account in the face of a lack of  support by government entities such as Border Patrol and the National Guard and nonprofits such as the Red Cross, which have failed to utilize their resources to help masses of border crossers still arriving on U.S. ground. Border Patrol has directed them into barren detention sites with zero supplies. Water, shelter and food resources are being supplied mostly by volunteers through donations.


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IS EAST SAN DIEGO COUNTY’S ILLEGAL MIGRANT SURGE SUBSIDING?

 

 By Rebecca Person 

A bleak landscape is what  migrants face. Photo: R. Person 

 

November 6, 2023 (Jacumba Hot Springs) -- The abandoned youth center building in Jacumba Hot Springs, which has been pressed into service as a staging area for emergency supplies going to undocumented border crossers, is crowded with bags and bags of donated clothing, sorted and marked, ready for coming waves of new migrants into the area. While a lower number of migrants seems to be arriving, there is no reason to believe it won’t increase.


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COULD MIDEAST MILITANTS CROSS BORDER IN OUR REGION?

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Supervisor Jim Desmond at press conference calling for border closure

October 28,2023 (San Diego) – The Israel-Hamas war has inflamed anti-U.S. sentiments around the world, sparking protests outside U.S. embassies in several nations,. NBC news reports. That’s led some local conservative politicians including Supervisor Jim Desmond and Supervisorial candidate Amy Reichert to call for closure of the border to new immigrants, citing fears that militants allied with terrorist groups supporting Hamas could potentially cross the border into the U.S. with an aim to harm Americans.

How credible are those concerns?


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ECM WINS PRESS CLUB AWARDS FOR COVERAGE OF IMMIGRANTS AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

By Miriam Raftery

October 27, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) – East County Magazine journalists Rebecca Person and Miriam Raftery picked up awards in San Diego Press Club’s  Excellence in Journalism Competition earlier this month. ECM has won 146 major journalism awards since its inception 15 years ago.

Rebecca Person received third place in the breaking news category for her article, “Jacumba Hot Springs community stunned by arrival of hundreds of migrants.” Person described efforts by local residents to aid migrants left without food, water, shade or shelter in sweltering desert heat.  Her coverage prompted an investigation by a human rights organization and filing of a federal complaint accusing Border Patrol agents of violating U.S. and international laws.

ECM editor Miriam Raftery received third place in the Radio interviews category for her interview on KNSJ Radio with Kathi Torres, a sex trafficking survivor who now works with Freedom from Exploitation, an organization that helps survivors of human trafficking.


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DEFIANT DREAMS: THE JOURNEY OF AN AFGHAN GIRL WHO RISKED EVERYTHING FOR EDUCATION

By Sola Mahfouz and Malaina Kapoor

 
   

Reviewed by Pennell Paugh

October 18,2023 (San Diego) -- Sola Mahfouz, who now lives in the U.S., recounts her life story to Malaina Kapoor, a writer and producer of the nationally syndicated public affairs radio program, In Deep.

The city of Kandahar, where Mahfouz’s family lived, became the site for battles between the Taliban and the government. Born in 1996, just two years after the Taliban’s rise in power, Mahfouz shares how Afghanistan’s women lived in a state of oppression.

The book begins:

I began to grow up the day my mother warned me to stop laughing. She was terrified that even my momentary giggle could bring a strange man to our door, ready to yell, kidnap, or even kill to silence the sounds of a young woman. Don’t dance outside your room, she’d warn me. Don’t sing in the hallways, where the sound can carry. I was eleven years old.


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SETTLEMENT REACHED IN LAWSUIT OVER FAMILIES SEPARATED AT BORDER BY TRUMP-ERA POLICY

By Miriam Raftery

Photo,left, courtesy of the ACLU

October 17, 2023 (San Diego) – The U.S.Justice Department has reached a settlement in a San Diego-based class action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of immigrant families separated at the international border by the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy.

The settlement is subject to a judge’s approval.

“The practice of separating families at the southwest border was shameful,” Attorney Merrick Garland said in a statement. ”This agreement will facilitate the reunification of separated families and provide them with critical services to aid in their recovery.”

Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the ACLU, said in a press release, “The ACLU has settled hundreds of lawsuits in our 103-year history, but none more important than this one. To America’s enduring shame, we tore children from the arms of their families to enact a xenophobic agenda. This settlement closes the darkest chapter of the Trump administration, but as welcomed as it is, the damage inflicted on these families will forever be tragic and irreversible.”


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SIXTH ANNUAL EAST COUNTY MULTICULTURAL FESTIVAL NOV. 4 IN EL CAJON

East County News Service

October 13, 2023 (El Cajon) -- Welcome Newcomer Network will host its 6TH Multicultural Festival on November 4 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at EJE Academies, 851 S Johnson Ave, El Cajon, CA 92020. The event will include multicultural food, cultural dance, a show of traditional costumes, storytelling, games and raffle drawings. For this year, we anticipate over 1,000 attendees.


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SUPERVISORS VOTE TO USE $3 MILLION IN FEDERAL FUNDS TO HELP NONPROFITS AIDING MIGRANTS AND ASYLUM SEEKERS

East County Supervisors, candidate for vacant seat split on views over migrant aid

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Migrants in Jacumba Hot Springs in May 2023

October 12, 2023 (San Diego) – By a 3-0 vote,  San Diego County Supervisors on Tuesday approved allocating $3 million in federal American Rescue Act funds to aid nonprofit groups that have become overwhelmed by waves of migrants in our region. Agencies through the region’s  Rapid Response Network are handling hundreds of asylum seekers daily in recent weeks. The funding will provide immediate aid with a goal of consolidating resources into a proposed migrant center in the future.

An estimated 98% of these migrants have family in the U.S., according to the proposal. But after being processed and screened by Border Patrol agents, many are being dropped off at transit stations without food, water, translation services, or any means of contacting relatives or traveling to reunite with their families. Recently, many migrants have been held temporarily in scorching desert heat in areas such as Jacumba and Boulevard without shade, water or food; community volunteers have stepped up to provide tarps, water, and sandwiches in what ECM reporter Rebecca Person termed “peanut butter diplomacy.” One immigrant called a volunteer offering food “an angel.”

An award-winning ECM report in May led the Southern Border Communities Coalition to file a federal complaint with Homeland Security over alleged mistreatment of migrants in violation of U.S. and international laws.

The use of the federal funds approved by Supervisors, intended as a three-month stopgap measure while the  County pushes for more federal money, will be used to help migrants and asylum seekers with translation help, transportation, food, water, hygiene kits, restrooms, access to Wi-Fi and equipment to reach relatives and move beyond San Diego to their destination, while asylum seekers await hearings in immigration court.


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VOLUNTEERS USE PEANUT BUTTER DIPLOMACY TO RESOLVE TOUGH BORDER SITUATION

By Rebecca Person

Photos by R. Person and Noah Miller

October 10, 2021 (San Diego’s East County) -- What began as a trickle of migrant activity at the Mexican border outside small towns in the farthest corner of east San Diego County has surged to a humanitarian crisis - a river, a deluge of hundreds of border crossings here daily. The scene has mirrored and surpassed the crisis last May, when the towns of Jacumba Hot Springs and Boulevard felt a sudden wave of migrants when Title 42 was lifted and Title 8 returned.

Those changes allowed migrants to apply for asylum.  But for those not able to qualify for asylum, crossing the border can lead to formal deportation back to one’s country of origin and possible criminal prosecution if the person makes a second entry within five years. 

Humanitarian groups such as Border Kindness have joined local resident volunteers and some church groups to bring a steady supply of donations - bottled water, blankets, jackets and tarps to migrants camped along the border fence. Also sandwiches, especially the peanut butter kind.


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THE MIGRANT CRISIS IN PHOTOS

By Rebecca Person

Photos by Rebecca Person and photographers who asked to be anonymous

October 1, 2023 (San Diego’s East County) -- Waves of border crossers quietly filter into the high desert towns of Jacumba Hot Springs and Boulevard in the farthest eastern corner of San Diego County.

Local residents and volunteers there respond with rounds of water and supplies. Surprisingly, many locals are unaware of the human drama unfolding all around them. Some who do encounter bands of migrants on back country roads use caution, fearing arrest for assisting illegal border crossers.


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IN U.S. BORDER TOWN - STEADY STREAM OF MIGRANTS CONTINUES

By Rebecca Person

photos By Pete Cerep

September15,2023 (Jacumba Hot Springs) -- Just when a recent crisis of hundreds of stranded undocumented people seemed to abate, local residents of San Diego County border town Jacumba Hot Springs are reporting new waves of migrants seen on foot emerging from the rugged desert here.

In recent weeks, the numbers and frequency of sightings have increased from occasional to now several groups are observed each week. The latest group on September 13 numbered 62 people who scurried over a remote desert trail and clustered in the shade of tamarisk trees beside Old Highway 80 in Jacumba.

Photos of the travelers reveal them to be mostly young men, possibly Asian, though a few women and children were seen. By contrast, most of the May migrants said they were from Haiti, Turkey, Brazil or Guatemala, according to residents who brought them water and survival supplies.

Those pictured in photos in this article were loaded into vans late in the day on  Sept. 13 to be transported to their next destination under the apparent supervision of Border Patrol, witnesses told  ECM.


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AFGHAN REFUGEES WHO AIDED THE U.S. STUCK IN LEGAL LIMBO

Two years after Kabul’s fall

by Ariana Figueroa, Kansas Reflector, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Photo (ticker) Getty Images (used under Creative Commons, courtesy Kansas Reflector)

Photo (story) Air Force One (used under model release)

August 22, 2023 (WASHINGTON) — Two years ago, Farzana Jamalzada and her husband made the difficult decision to separately flee Afghanistan, after U.S. troops withdrew from the country and the Taliban took over.

It took days for the couple to be reunited at an airport in Qatar, where Jamalzada would show people a picture of her husband on her phone, asking them if they had seen him.


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IMMIGRANTS’ RIGHTS ADVOCATES SUE GOVERNMENT OVER ASYLUM LAW CHANGES THAT PUT IMMIGRANTS’ LIVES AT RISK

East County Magazine

Photo, left: immigrants in Jacumba, CA, where some told aid workers they were barred from asking for asylum.

June 25, 2023 (Washington D.C.) -- The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of the District of Columbia, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and National Immigrant Justice Center this week sued the Biden administration over its sweeping and restrictive changes to asylum policies.


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BIPARTISAN IMMIGRATION REFORM AIMS TO PROVIDE IMMIGRANTS WITH LEGAL STATUS

By Daniela Torres

Photo via Wikipedia, public domain image

June 5, 2023 (Washington D.C.) -- Representatives María Elvira Salazar of Florida and Veronica Escobar of Texas have proposed a bipartisan immigration bill, the Dignity Act of 2023. If enacted, it would provide immigrants with a path to citizenship, while also strengthening border security and phasing in e-verify requirements for employers.

Salazar, a Republican, has been working on the bill alongside Escobar, a Democrat, since December of 2022 before introducing HR 3599 in late May. View a summary of the bill on Salazar’s site.


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CRIMINAL PROBES LAUNCHED INTO FLORIDA GOVERNOR DESANTIS' ADMINISTRATION FLYING IMMIGANTS TO CALIFORNIA AND MASSACHUSETTS

 

“State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting.” – California Attorney General Rob Bonta

"The charge filed is unlawful restraint and several counts were filed, both misdemeanor and felony." -- Sheriff Javier Salazar, Bexar County, Texas

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left (by Gage Skidmore, cc-sa-2.0)  and California Attorney Rob Bonta,via his website

 

June 5, 2023 (San Diego) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis launched his campaign for President last month. But his role in shipping immigrants to other states has sparked condemnation and criminal investigations in California and Texas.

A year ago, DeSantis signed a budget that allocated $12 million to transport undocumented immigrants out of Florida, NBC news reports. Last  September, DeSantis claimed credit for flying 49 asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, the New York Times reported. In the past week, over a dozen migrants were flown to Sacramento, California by private plane.  In both instances, no care had been arranged and some migrants said they had been lured onto flights with false promises of jobs and opportunities.


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HEAR OUR INTERVIEW WITH LOCAL LEADERS HELPING REFUGEES

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: East County Magazine Radio Show host Miriam Raftery,  Dilkhwaz Ahmed, CEO of License to Freedom, and Bob Gan, Co-Chair of Welcome Home in San Diego

June 3, 2023 (San Diego) – San Diego is a national hub for refugees fleeing war and persecution from nations around the world. Welcome Home in San Diego and License to Freedom in El Cajon are two organizations helping people who have been legally designated as refugees. 

Recently, ECM Editor Miriam Raftery interviewed Bob Gan,Co-Chair of Welcome Home locally and Dilkhwaz Ahmed, Chief Executive Officer of License to Freedom. 

You can hear our full interview, originally aired on KNSJ 89.1 FM radio, by clicking the audio link, or scroll down for highlights to learn how you can help these nonprofit organzations welcoming new Americans.

Audio: 


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LIVES IN DANGER: REPORT PROMPTS HUMANITARIAN GROUP TO FILE FEDERAL COMPLAINT ACCUSING BORDER PATROL OF ENDANGERING MIGRANTS IN JACUMBA

By Miriam Raftery

Photo, left:  Lilian Serrano, Director, Southern Border Communities Coalition

May 18, 2023 (Jacumba Hot Springs) —the U.S. Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at the University of California, San Diego, issued a blistering report accusing Border Patrol of endangering migrants’ lives by depriving them of food, water, shelter, medical care and other necessities. The damning report is titled Lives in Danger:  Seeking Asylum Against the Backdrop of Increased Border Enforcement. It was published on May 16, two days after ECM broke the story of some 1,000 to 2,000 migrants in Jacumba Hot Springs who were aided by residents after Border Patrol failed to provide food or shelter.

In addition, the nonprofit humanitarian group Southern Border Communities Coalition (SBCC) has filed a federal complaint with Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, alleging mistreatment of the Jacumba asylum-seekers and violations of both U.S. and international law.

Lilian Serrano, director of SBCC, told ECM in an interview for KNSJ radio that volunteers withessed ”families, children, elders waiting outdoors for days without access to food or water.”  Regarding filing the complaint, she said, ”Our hope is that we can find out why were there outdoor detention facilities in our area, what was the reasoning behind that, and why were agents in full, clear violation of their policy – but more importantly, what can we do to prevent this from every happening again? Because regardless of your situation, whether you are coming in for asylum or not, basic standards need to be met. We cannot allow another child to go hungry in front of a federal agent.”

Audio: 


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JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS COMMUNITY STUNNED BY ARRIVAL OF HUNDREDS OF MIGRANTS - SEEKS DONATIONS

By Rebecca Person

Photo, left: John Schultz and Rebecca Person

May 14, 2023 (Jacumba Hot Springs) - Humanitarian actions are in full swing in the high desert commmunity of Jacumba Hot Springs and neighboring In Ko Pah Park at the far eastern end of San Diego County. 

Small family and humanitarian groups responded Friday and Saturday to get water, food, blankets and other essentials to hundreds of stranded migrants who have crossed the border fencing and whose dreams of having a more prosperous life in California languish amid frigid nights and daytime wind and sun in these stark high desert areas.
 
A plea has gone out to local communities in Imperial and East San Diego counties and donations are being sorted by volunteers.

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Innovation Grant Proposal: Additional information

East County Media's proposal for an Innovation Grant from the J.M. Kaplan Fund  aspires to create a digital Social Justice News and Resources Center on our award-winning news site, www.EastCountyMagazine.org.

Our proposal is supported by prominent leaders of organizations that help refugees and immigrations. Our project leaders have award-winning journalism and humanitarian backgrounds, including extensive experience reporting on/working with immigrants, refugees, and other vulnerable populations locally and globally.


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Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.

COURT ALLOWS REMAIN IN MEXICO LAWSUIT TO MOVE FORWARD

East County News Service

Photo: migrants at border in Arizona, via Congressional representative Ann Kirkpatrick

March 17, 2023 (San Diego) – On Wednesday, March 15, a federal court largely denied the Biden administration’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit, Immigrant Defenders Law Center et al. v. Mayorkas, brought on behalf of people seeking asylum who were stranded outside the United States as a result of the Trump administration’s  “Remain in Mexico” policy.


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Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.

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