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    Border Patrol sending migrants to unofficial camps in California's desert, locals say

    Residents of the Southern California border community of Jacumba say hundreds of migrants are dropped off every day at ad hoc sites where conditions are often dire. They call it a humanitarian crisis.
    by Jasmine Garsd Nov 21, 2023 4 minutes
    Locals say U.S. Border Patrol is delivering hundreds of migrants into a series of camps, one of which is on private property, in the border community of Jacumba in the Southern California desert. Overnight temperatures in the desert have begun to drop below freezing.

    On a chilly autumn morning in the California desert, on the side of a highway, two young men are asking for help.

    They tell NPR they are from Turkey. They crossed the U.S.-Mexico border a few minutes ago, with about 18 other people.

    They're exhausted.

    And then they ask for something unusual, given the circumstances.

    "Please. Call border patrol."

    Almost as soon as they say it, Border Patrol rolls up and takes them.

    As strange as it sounds, this is what they want. They have been told that if they cross over and turn themselves over to Border Patrol, they are taking the first step toward getting a visa or a better chance at asylum in the United States.

    This is how every day for the600. They end up at camps like this one, an open field near the highway, where Border Patrol has told them to wait. Activists and locals say it's a humanitarian disaster. And they say no one is helping.

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