San Diego, CA
San Diego migrant center to close after influx of asylum-seekers drain funds: ‘Serious problem’
A San Diego migrant center announced it will be forced to close its doors Thursday after running out of funds to assist the overwhelming number of asylum-seekers who have illegally crossed into the county.
The mayor of nearby El Cajon, Calif., told Fox News Thursday that he fears the welcome center’s closure will quickly become a “serious problem” for his community.
“Over the past few months, we’ve seen 100,000 migrants come across the San Diego border,” Mayor Bill Wells told “Fox & Friends First.”
“A lot of those have been absorbed by this county shelter that used taxpayer money. They asked for $3 million and they spent over $6 million and now they say they’re out of money. So we’re going to see migrants congregating in our streets.”
“I think it’s going to become a pretty serious problem pretty quickly.”
The center, which claims to be handling up to 800 migrants a day, has been sending buses to county Border Patrol stations to pick up migrants, bring them back to the site and provide services to prepare them for the journey to their final destination.
“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,” SBCS CEO Kathie Lembo said in a statement.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data obtained by Fox News reveals that nearly 140,000 illegal immigrants in total have crossed into the San Diego sector since Fiscal Year 2024 began on October 1st.
“The Border Patrol tells us we’re going to go from about 300 drop-offs a day to maybe a thousand drop-offs a day,” Wells said Thursday.
When asked by co-host Todd Piro where the migrants are going to go without the center, Wells said hotels could become an unwelcome solution that compounds the state’s existing homeless problem.
“They spent up to $8,000 per person per month to put somebody up in a hotel, and they seem to have no problem spending that kind of money. It ruins the neighborhoods, it destroys the hotels, it destroys our security infrastructure. And it’s really bad for everybody,” he said.
Among the 140,000 illegal immigrants encountered in San Diego have been thousands of “special interest aliens,” classified as those who come from countries with potential national security concerns.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported Friday that 21,000 Chinese nationals have been apprehended in the San Diego Sector since Oct. 1, according to CBP sources. The number is second only to Colombian nationals and shockingly eclipsed the number of Mexican nationals.
Wells, who recently visited the border, described witnessing an encampment of around 150 male Chinese migrants.
“I think that’s a real serious concern. China is not neutral with us. They’re somewhat of an enemy, at least in a Cold War at this point. And it makes me nervous to see enemies of our nation congregating right in our city,” he said.
Nearly 7.3 million migrants have illegally crossed the southwest border under President Biden’s watch, a number greater than the population of 36 individual states, a Fox News analysis finds.
That figure comes from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which has already reported 961,537 border encounters in the current fiscal year, which runs from October through September.
If the current pace of illegal immigration does not slow down, fiscal year 2024 will break last year’s record of 2,475,669 southwest border encounters — a number that by itself exceeds the population of New Mexico, a border state.
The total number of southwest land border encounters since Biden assumed office in 2021 is 7,298,486, CBP data shows.
Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo, Bradford Betz, Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
San Diego, CA
San Diego State coach has full-circle moment vs. Kim Mulkey, LSU in Women’s March Madness
Players in March Madness to watch before the WNBA draft
Mackenzie Salmon and Meghan Hall give a guide on what players to look out for in the March Madness tournament before the WNBA draft.
Sports Seriously
- The San Diego State women’s basketball will face LSU in the first round of the NCAA tournament, marking the Aztec’s first tournament appearance in 13 years.
- SDSU coach Stacie Terry-Hutson was an assistant coach for LSU during the two teams’ only other matchup in 2012.
- Terry-Hutson left LSU a year later to become SDSU’s head coach, a position she has held for 12 years.
BATON ROUGE, La — A series of coincidences surrounds San Diego State’s first appearance in the women’s NCAA Tournament in 13 years.
For starters, the Aztecs have faced Saturday night’s opponent, LSU, only once before: In 2012 when the Tigers defeated SDSU 64-56 in the first round of March Madness.
Even stranger, SDSU coach Stacie Terry-Hutson was on the opposing bench during that game, as an assistant coach for LSU.
A year later, Terry-Hutson left LSU to start her first collegiate head coaching job at SDSU. She has remained in the position for the last 12 years.
“I’m a little torn because I have a lot of love for LSU,” said Terry-Hutson when talking about what it means to be back. “I’ve been really proud to watch what Coach (Kim) Mulkey has done with this program.”
Watch LSU vs. San Diego State on Fubo
Terry-Hutson described the coincidence as being serendipitous. Nevertheless, she stressed that this moment wasn’t about her.
“It’s a great story, but it’s really about these young women,” she said.
SDSU punched its ticket to March Madness in dramatic fashion, defeating Wyoming in triple overtime in the Mountain West title game. But SDSU lacks experience on this stage, with only one person on its roster having ever played in the tournament.
The Aztecs expect a loud and raucous atmosphere Saturday night in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“We know it’s deafening,” Terry-Hutson said. “When they go on a run, it’s really hard to hear.”
To prepare for this environment, SDSU played loud music and artificial crowd noise in the gym during practice. The team has even gone as far as learning hand signals for in-game communication, something they haven’t done all season.
“If we can stay connected in that environment, no matter who’s on the floor, we’ll have a good chance,” Terry-Huston said.
Tatum Esparza is a student in the University of Georgia’s Sports Media Certificate program.
William Apodaca Arias
OBITUARY
William Arias was born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, July 12, 1928 to Francisca (Apodaca) Arias and Carpio Soto. His adopted father was Cipriano Arias. William was a WWII Vet, serving in the US Army Air Corps.
He was predeceased by his wife, Phemina “Patsy” (Montoya) Arias, his son William C. Arias (killed in Vietnam). Surviving are his sons, Don P. Arias (Carmen), and Frank A. Arias (Florie); seven grandchildren, 14 great- and seven great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral Services will be held March 25, 2025 at 1:30pm, at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, 1700 Cabrillo Memorial Dr, San Diego, CA.
IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (KGTV) – Progress is underway on the Imperial Beach Pier and surrounding areas as efforts continue to draw visitors despite ongoing sewage issues that have closed nearby beaches.
“IB Pier is one of the Port of San Diego’s piers we own it we maintain it and we basically want to make it the nicest pier in San Diego. We’ve been doing a lot of work on it the last couple of years,” Dan Malcolm, the Port Commissioner of San Diego, said. “We spent $2.5 million refreshing it, doing an artistic shade structure, painting it. We put placards out, railing, refreshing the pier. For residents and visitors, this is a central area where they come.”
The Port Commissioner said looking up the coast past San Diego and down to Mexico is what makes this pier special. The pier was built in 1963, and at the time, it was 1,200 feet. Fishing has been a common attraction here throughout the years.
“As a piece of ocean infrastructure, there are always things to be done. We’ll continue to monitor, we’ll redo planking and look at other projects to make the pier attractive to people,” Malcolm said.
Changes coming soon to area around Imperial Beach Pier
By 2026, the port hopes to bring a splash pad to the area at the base of the pier. That project is estimated to cost another $1.5 million.
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