A California desert town sees surge in migrants as border crisis worsens

BLYTHE, Calif. - The little boy playing in the parking lot of a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Blythe was startled when three U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles pulled in.

Favio Ferreira, a 7-year-old from Guatemala, ran inside to tell the others.

"Come, come, la migra!" he said.

But the agents weren't there to round up people who were in the country illegally. They were dropping immigrants off.

The scene that unfolded recently in this desert city about 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border exemplifies how the immigration crisis has spilled over into communities farther north.

With a historic flow of Central American families fleeing poverty and violence, federal officials earlier this spring began releasing migrants on their own recognizance from inundated detention centers in growing numbers.