ICE tight-lipped on plans for detainees after protesters block buses in Murrieta
A day after hundreds of protesters forced three buses carrying 140 immigration detainees away from a Border Patrol processing station in Murrieta, immigration officials are declining to discuss their next move citing “safety and security considerations.”
Protester Jessica Davis shouts at counter-demonstrators in front of the U.S. Border Patrol office in Murrieta.
On Tuesday, 100 to 150 protestors met three buses[/URL] a few blocks from the border patrol station with chants of “Go home” and “We want to be safe.”
The buses were carrying immigrant detainees — many of them women and children from Central America — who had recently crossed the border in Texas. They were flown to San Diego by the Department of Homeland Security.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials met with city officials in Murrieta and Temecula before the protests, said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the agency “We’re sensitive to those issues and we’re seeking to address them,” she said. “At this point, due to safety and security considerations ... we are not providing any further information,” Kice told the Los Angeles Times in an email Wednesday.
This year, Border Patrol agents across the Southwest have detained more than 52,000 unaccompanied minors, with a particular concentration along the Rio Grande border in Texas, according to federal records.
Murrieta is one of several cities whose facilities will receive migrants as the government seeks to lessen the burden on the Texas border.
Migrants will also be sent to a border patrol facility in El Centro in neighboring Imperial County, as well as a center in
Though the day was tense and loud, the protests were nonviolent
At a City Council meeting after the protests, Long thanked the crowds for refraining from violence.
"The people who live here are passionate about their community, and that's what you're seeing outside today," the mayor said.
Councilman Rick Gibbs also cited the limited accommodations at the local Border Patrol facility, which, he said, had metal benches and limited lavatories.
"Murrieta is not El Paso, we're not Tucson. This is a small community," he said. "We do not have the facilities to feed and clothe people for an extended stay.
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