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California

Migrants turned back by Murrieta protests processed in San Diego

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Protester William Satmary of Murrieta stands on a hill to keep a lookout for buses containing immigrant detainees.   (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Murrieta police handcuff and detain a protester after an altercation.   (Matt Hansen / Los Angeles Times)
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Murrieta police scuffle with protesters who were waiting for buses containing immigrant detainees.   (Matt Hansen / Los Angeles Times)
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Minor pushing and yelling matches break out July 4 in the emotionally charged crowd of protesters gathering in front of the U.S. Border Patrol station in Murrieta in anticipation of the arrival of more buses carrying immigrant detainees.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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During one of the minor confrontations of the day, Salvadore Chavez, 24, finds himself in an unfriendly crowd as he tries to hold a sign expressing his immigration-rights sentiment.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Murrieta police divide opposing groups of protesters as they wait for buses containing immigrant detainees on July 4.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Police stand between opposing groups of protesters as they await the possible arrival of buses containing immigrant detainees outside the Murrieta Border Patrol facility.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Police officers monitor crowds of protesters gathered in front of the U.S. Border Patrol station Friday. Some were there in support of the migrants, others in opposition.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Police detain a man near a U.S. Border Patrol facility who was there to protest the possible arrival of migrants from Central America.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Protesters against illegal immigration stand ready at sunrise with their flags at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Murrieta July, 4, 2014. Protesters on both sides of the issue are waiting for the possible arrival of more busloads of immigrant detainees.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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A group supporting immigrant rights gathers outside the performing arts building at Murrieta Mesa High School during the town hall meeting.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Members of the community arrive for a town hall meeting in the performing arts building at Murrieta Mesa High School to voice their concerns and listen to public officials over the proposed processing of immigrant detainees at the Murrieta Border Patrol station.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Latin singer Lupillo Rivera is mobbed by followers and supporters after Rivera spoke during the town hall meeting at Murrieta Mesa High School on Wednesday.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Murrieta residents Carol Schlaepfer, left, and Beverly Trigilio boo when President Obama’s name is mentioned during a town hall meeting at Vista Murrieta High School.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Murrieta resident Martin Doran and others cheer comments made by Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Murrieta Mayor Alan Long stands in the wings while Murrieta residents are briefed at a town hall meeting.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Murrieta residents applaud at the town hall meeting.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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All is calm at the Border Patrol in Murrieta on the morning after a crowd of citizens carrying flags and signs blocked three buses from entering the facility.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Concerned citizens cruise by the Border Patrol station in Murrieta after the protests.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Members of the Latino community verbally square off with residents opposed to illegal immigration in front of the U.S. Border Patrol office in Murrieta.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Protester Jessica Davis shouts at counter-demonstrators in front of the U.S. Border Patrol office in Murrieta.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Mexican flags flap in the breeze in front of the U.S. Border Patrol office in Murrieta, where hours earlier a large group of local residents turned away three buses carrying immigrant detainees.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Residents express their feelings in Murrieta.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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A large group of people carrying flags and posters on Tuesday protest a caravan of three buses carrying immigrant detainees, who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas, to a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Murrieta.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Immigrant-rights activist Lupillo Rivera, right, squares off with a large crowd of local citizens carrying flags and posters on the street in front of the U.S. Border Patrol in Murrieta.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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A crowd of 200 to 300 people in downtown Murrieta surround three buses carrying immigrant detainees.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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A crowd of 200 to 300 people in downtown Murrieta surround three buses carrying immigrant detainees.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Officials escorting immigrant detainees to a facility at the U.S. Border Patrol in Murrieta watch as protesters block the road.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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A group of local residents carrying flags and posters assist in turning away three buses carrying immigrant detainees to a Border Patrol station in Murrieta.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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Three buses carrying immigrant detainees are blocked by protesters in Murrieta.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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One of the three buses carrying immigrant detainees to a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Murrieta backs up after protesters blocked the road.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
By Richard Marosi
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Migrants who were turned back from Murrieta have been driven to San Diego, where they were dispersed to at least three U.S. Border Patrol stations, authorities said Wednesday.

The facilities appear to offer a short-term solution to the temporary relocation of the families to the San Diego area, which is part of a transfer plan from Texas that will go on indefinitely, according to U.S. authorities.

The stations, including ones in Chula Vista and Imperial Beach, are located near the border in areas with large Latino populations that are unlikely to host the kind of angry protests that occurred Tuesday.

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And processing should be relatively smooth given the fact that arrests of migrants in the San Diego area are at a record low.

U.S. authorities on Wednesday also transferred a flight full of migrant families to Imperial County, 120 miles east of San Diego. They are being processed at border patrol headquarters in El Centro.

No protests were reported.

“Unlike the acts that much of the American public saw yesterday in Murrieta, today children and families being transferred to the El Centro Customs and Border Protection Station experienced a different reception,” State Rep. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) said in a prepared statement.

“Federal officers were allowed to do their jobs in a peaceful and appropriate manner, and I applaud them for their professionalism and compassion,” he added.

Agents say the station is accustomed to processing many more people than the approximately 140 who had arrived.

“We are getting ready for this,” said Lombardo Amaya, the local union representative for the National Border Patrol Council. “I don’t see right now why we in El Centro ... would have a problem.”

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Agents process the migrants in part to determine whether any have serious criminal records. Those who aren’t deported are handed over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, usually within about three days.

On Tuesday, a convoy of three buses carrying 140 detainees was forced by protesters to turn away from the Border Patrol facility in Murrieta.

The detainees, many of them women and children from Central America, had recently crossed the border into Texas and had been flown to San Diego by the Department of Homeland Security.

On Wednesday night, federal officials will join Murrieta city officials at a town hall at Murrieta Mesa High School to field questions from residents and address concerns.

Follow @ricardin24.

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Richard Marosi

Richard Marosi is a former Metro editor for the Los Angeles Times. He previously reported from the U.S.-Mexico border. Marosi was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 for his series on Mexican laborers and in 2013 for his stories on the fate of thousands of immigrants who were deported from the U.S. to Mexico in recent years. He has delved deeply into Mexico’s drug wars, producing a groundbreaking series on the Sinaloa cartel and sharing an Overseas Press Club Award in 2009. In the early 2000s, his corruption investigations in Southeast Los Angeles County contributed to the indictment or ouster of a dozen politicians and city officials. Marosi is a Southern California resident but remains loyal to the Giants, 49ers and Warriors of his native San Francisco Bay Area.

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