Busloads full of illegal aliens, many of them children, from overcrowded detention facilities in Texas were flown into San Diego Tuesday morning before being driven north to Murrieta for processing, but plans changed when over 100 protestors prevented the bus from entering the Murrieta Border Patrol facility.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Patrice Lynes, the organizer of the Murrieta protests, recounted the events that led to the buses turning back, and what demonstrators wanted to convey.
When Lynes heard of the transfers, she gathered a couple of friends and began staging demonstrations against the transfers, as well as in support of Border Patrol agents. On Sunday, June 28, the group that joined Lynes grew to a couple dozen. Lynes also gathered about 25 people–including moms, students, and former Border Patrol agents–to meet with staff in the office of U.S. Rep. Kevin Calvert (R-CA) to voice their concern over the lack of enforcement of current immigration laws.
After public outcry over the transfers, some plans to fly the detainees to California were canceled, but Tuesday’s flights did take off, one of which headed for San Diego. After the plane landed, the 140 illegal aliens on board were escorted onto buses and driven up to the Murrieta Border Patrol station for processing.
However, when the buses arrived, they found Lynes and fellow demonstrators waiting. After about 25 minutes, the buses backed down. It was later discovered that they were rerouted south to San Diego County’s Chula Vista Border Patrol station–despite that station’s inability to process the detainees.
Lynes told Breitbart News, “We are in total support of the Border Patrol.”
She added: “We really want the laws enforced at the border. We are against illegal immigration.” She said that what the protestors would like to see happen is “repatriate the illegal aliens to their home countries.”
As a former nurse, Lynes says she was particularly concerned with the diseases that are reportedly being carried by some detainees, and the potential that some of those medical problems could overwhelm local medical resources. Lynes notes that one Border Patrol agent in Texas has already been reported to have contracted tuberculosis, and that three children from the buses that ended up in Chula Vista were taken to San Diego’s Rady Children’s hospital for treatment for unspecified ailments.
Lynes recalls that she has worked as a nurse in regions of the U.S. that have experienced similar diseases brought from abroad. She said the diseases that are likely to come in are drug-resistant tuberculosis; leprosy; tropical diseases, including dengue fever; Chagas disease; and various other childhood diseases. Lynes also noted that many of these diseases can be difficult to detect initially, and the medical screening being done during Border Patrol screening will not catch many of these diseases.
Additional flights are expected to arrive every three days into San Diego, and possibly other cities near the border as well. Planned transfers in the coming day will reportedly take the illegal aliens to Border Patrol stations in El Centro, Boulevard, Campo, El Cajon, Chula Vista, San Clemente and Murrieta, according to an ABC 10 News report. That report also noted that each flight comes at a cost of about $70,000 to taxpayers.
Lynes’s growing group of protestors in Murrieta has been organizing and plans to continue their protests until something is done.
Their message is support Border Patrol, stop illegal immigration, enforce existing U.S. laws at the border, and repatriate those here in the U.S. illegally to their home countries.
Photo: Patrice Lynes
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