By Sandra G. León

The San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted this week to accept nearly $20 million in federal funding to operate a migrant transition center to help new immigrant navigate their next steps after being processed and released in San Diego County by federal immigration officials.

The Supervisors voted 4 to 1 with Democrats Nora Vargas, Terra Lawson-Remer, and Monica Montgomery Steppe along with Republican Joel Anderson voting in favor and only Republican Jim Desmond voting against accepting $19.6 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding.

Last month, Supervisors voted along the same 4-1 lines to create a program to provide temperate services, including shelter, food, transportation, acute medical care, personal hygiene supplies, and support to migrants being dropped off at local transit stations without any means of support to get to their final destinations in other cities throughout the US.

Since late last summer when border crossings surged, more than 130,000 migrants have been processed and released in San Diego County, mostly in South County areas.

A temporary migrant transition center opened last October closed in February of this year after the County had spent a total of $6 million allocated for the services. Local nonprofits, including Jewish Family Service of San Diego and Catholic Charities of San Diego, have also provided support services to migrants dropped off by immigration officials.

Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas, who is battling a vocal cord medical issue and is restricted from speaking, released a statement detailing the process they expect to use to solicit bids from nonprofits to operate the transition center which they hope to open in August.

Border encounters with immigration officials peaked in December 2023 at over 301,980, the highest number ever records in one month, although the monthly total fell to 176,197 the following month, and was down to 179,127 last month.

The DHS definition of “encounters” has increased the total number reported compared to previous years when only apprehensions were reported.

CBP created a new category called "encounters," which combined apprehensions and expulsions.

In March 2020, the Trump Administration imposed a Title 42 health order during the initial stages of the COVID pandemic under a 1944 law that allows the US to ban the entry of individuals from any country experiencing the spread of a “communicable disease.

Since then, Title 42 has been used over 2.7 million times to return migrants to Mexico, sometimes resulting in people attempting repeated entries into the US and being counted multiple times.

According to the DHS, encounters include people who tried to cross the border more than once, people who sought out border agents to claim asylum, individuals who scheduled appointments to claim asylum at official ports of entry, people who are apprehended or detained temporarily then released in the US with a future court date, and people who are turned away entirely at the border.