San Isidro, California – When humanitarian aid workers decided to remove their well-designed tent set-up (just leaning directly against the border wall), they hadn't seen an immigrant in a month.
A year ago, when historic immigrants arrived at the border, it was assisted by the National Quaker Human Rights Organization, the American Friends Service Commission. Eventually, the group received enough donations to build three canopies and store food, clothing and medical supplies there.
However, the border crossing of immigrants has come to an amazing change in the southernmost point of California.
The shelters that once hosted immigrants have been closed, temporary camps for immigrants who have temporarily waited for processing are barren, and nonprofits have begun to transfer their services to mature U.S. immigrants facing deportation, or immigrants trapped in southern Mexico.
Meanwhile, with the assistance of 750 U.S. troops, the Border Patrol reinforced the six-mile border wall with hexagonal piano contergina wires.
Adriana Jasso, program coordinator of the American Friends Services Council, has been packing clothes, food, water and other supplies that were once provided to immigrants across the United States in a region called Whiskey 8 in San Isidro.
The most recent day, the Assistance Committee, established by the Service Commission, was left with only an empty canopy a few miles west of the border crossing of the San Isidro. Three aid workers wearing blue surgical gloves packed boxes marked “Children/hydrate”, “Tea and Hot Cocoa” and “Little Sweater”. They are not needed now.
The agency said Border Patrol agents from the San Diego department are arresting about 30 to 40 people a day. This is more than 1,200 immigrants arriving in the area every day in April.
Adriana Jasso of the Coordinating Services Committee's US-Mexico Program recalls busy time and the team's assistance work. “This is the first time we have received this level of humanitarian assistance,” Jasso said.
But these days, she said: “It's the end of an experience – for the moment. Because life can be unpredictable.”
In May 2023, the Biden administration ended a pandemic-era policy under which immigrants were deprived of their right to seek asylum and quickly returned to Mexico. Under the leadership of policy changes, immigrants landed on the border.
Two parallel fences form most of the border barrier near San Diego. Asylum seekers start scaling the fence closest to Mexico and handing themselves over to the Border Patrol, who will tell them to wait between the two fences to handle.
Often past days before agents returned to the area (known as Whiskey 8). Meanwhile, Jasso and her colleagues radiated hot instant soup, fresh fruit and backpacks through the slots of the fence.
Jasso last saw any immigrants there was on February 15 – a group of 20 people consisting primarily of Indian and Chinese men.
American Friends Service Commission (AFSC) volunteer Emma Starkey packs his bags in a district called Whiskey 8 in San Ysidro. “It has been a month since we met anyone,” Starkey said of immigration.
Then a storm came in and drove out two canopies. Jasso and her team took this as a sign to remove the rest. The stench of the contaminated Tijuana River fluttered in the morning air as Jasso dragged a plastic shelf unit out of the canopy.
Inside the canopy, one of the last items left was a plush mouse, her bubblegum pink shoes with dirt. A young girl handed it to Jasso through the fence.
“The Border Patrol refused to let her accept it,” Jasso said. “I promised her that I would take care of it and that someone would like it as much as she did.”
Just as Jasso packed his bag at Whiskey 8, the Border Patrol held a press conference a few miles away.
Parking on the border wall east of the San Isidro border crossing, the Border Patrol SUV and the Green Hummer as a backdrop to illustrate the partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense.
A pair of American soldiers looked at Tijuana, which was nestled behind the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border on the Mexican border near San Ysidro.
A gate in the obstacle and the border patrol, Marine Corps and Army officials showed reporters the hexagonal lines of the two fences now.
You can hear loud music from Tijuana
The troops created a “obstruction design” by welding metal rods to the top of the fence, pointing to Mexico, and securing more wires on it.
Jeffrey Stalnaker, acting chief patrol agent for the San Diego area, said additional wires have been installed since the arrival of the troops on January 23, but slowed down illegal entries.
Starnak said federal prosecutors in San Diego also accepted more than 1,000 border-related criminal cases this fiscal year. Mexico vowed to send 10,000 National Guards to the northern border after Trump's tariff threats. Stalnaker said the troops now meet with U.S. agents several times a week and conduct synchronous patrols at the respective edges of the border.
Construction workers in Tijuana work high up on the border wall, including the new zither wire along the border of the United States and Mexico.
“What we’re seeing here today is the result of a truly comprehensive effort, from Marines laying miles of hexagonal wires along border infrastructure to soldiers equipped with our oscilloscope trucks and remote video surveillance cameras,” he said.
Only Border Patrol agents can arrest immigrants who entered the country illegally, but Starnak said using military personnel found that immigrants have released agents to spend more time in the field.
Last April, San Diego became the top region for immigrants to arrive on the border for the first time in decades. Starnak said the number of immigration arrests has decreased by 70% so far in the fiscal year compared to the same period last year.
“It would be an understatement to say that a huge change has occurred,” he said.
But Stalker noted that the Border Patrol expects an increase in attempts by immigrants to enter California by boat, “as we continue to lock in the border here and ensure it.”
Further east, Jacumba Hot Springs is Once a location for other open-air campshundreds of immigrants sleep on plastic tarpaulins (if they are lucky, or in tents) and squeeze around a brush-stuffed campfire to keep warm.
Sam Schultz approaches the moon camp and immigrants will rest and camp after crossing the U.S./Mexico border near Jacumba Hot Springs. “If you can't see anyone at all, it's hard to keep it,” Schultz said of his efforts to continue bringing food and water to immigrants in the area.
A water tank filled with water for immigrants, tires sitting on it, sandbags used to press tents, everything was left at the moon camp near Jacumba Hot Springs.
Sam Schultz is a retired international relief worker who lived near Jacumba for nine years, delivering water, hot meals and blankets to immigrants there every day. He felt forced to help when the camp suddenly appeared a few miles from his home.
The tent that once covered the campsite next to Highway 80 disappeared. Schultz's son dragged them away recently because no longer needed.
Schultz still visits three locations several times a week to check if the water left out for immigrants needs to be replenished.
He said: “The water has not yet moved.”
Legal aid and humanitarian organizations that help immigrants have shifted their actions from the border.
The Los Angeles-based Immigration Defenders Law Center serves immigrants who are traveling by bus from the border. The group also provided legal assistance to those awaiting in Tijuana to appoint customs and border protection. After the inauguration, President Trump quickly canceled the existing appointment and ended the phone application used by the Biden administration to arrange them.
Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder and CEO of the Law Center, said there has been an increase around Los Angeles since the arrest of immigration agents, and the group has begun to focus on defending the deportation of recently detained immigrants.
Right, Oscar Mendoza stares at the Movimento Juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana with his 15-year-old daughters Melina and 12-year-old Dolores. Mendoza and his family fled Morelos, Mexico, because of all the violence and his family were threatened.
Erika Pinheiro, executive director of Al Otro Lado, said many people who were deported to Mexico were sent further south, so there were not as many people in Tijuana. She said the organization has brought employees to Mexico City and Tapachula, which borders Guatemala.
Pinheiro said the San Jesidro-based organization recently expanded a program supporting a non-Spanish-speaking immigration in Mexico — refugees who are now unable to seek asylum in the United States but cannot safely return to their country of origin.
The American Friends Service Commission also changed its work by focusing on providing “Know Your Rights” speeches in schools, churches and community centers.
But back to Whiskey 8, Jasso said the organization will continue to provide direct humanitarian assistance to moving forward immigrants.
A Border Patrol agent was along a wall along an area called Whiskey 8, where immigrants used to receive water and food in San Isidro.
She recalled three immigrants who died in the Otay Mountain wilderness earlier this month after calling for help in the storm, which brought near-freezing temperatures to severe terrain.
Since immigrants are now unable to seek legal means to enter the United States through asylum procedures, advocates expect more life-threatening risks to begin by trying to enter illegally through more distant and dangerous terrain. Some desperate people may even try to skip all newly installed hexagonal lines.
