Protesters block buses carrying unaccompanied minors in California
Buses carrying about 140 children and adults were blocked Tuesday by angry protesters in Southern California, preventing the buses from reaching a processing facility in…
Protesters stand in the road blocking a bus carrying 140 immigrants on the way to be processed at the Murrieta Border Patrol station on Tuesday, July 1, 2014. The buses had to be rerouted to another location. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, Sarah Burge)
Buses carrying about 140 children and adults were blocked Tuesday by angry protesters in Southern California, preventing the buses from reaching a processing facility in Murrieta.
The immigrants were flown to San Diego from South Texas, where Border Patrol agents have been overwhelmed by an influx of children crossing the border without a parent or guardian.
The buses were headed to the Murrieta Border Patrol station when about 100 protesters stood in front of the buses, rerouting them to a border station in San Ysidro, according to CNN.
Protesters carried signs that said no illegals and return to sender. Some of them chanted USA! and Go home!
SEE ALSO: Obama wants to speed removal of unaccompanied minors
An unidentified protester, left, argues with Lupillo Rivera, right, as three buses carrying 140 immigrants attempt to enter the Murrieta Border Patrol station. (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise)
A smaller group of people supporting the unaccompanied minors and adults in the buses stood nearby.
Among them was Lupillo Rivera, a well-known Mexican singer who is a U.S. citizen. Tensions ran high when Rivera, brother of the late singer Jenni Rivera, was confronted by several of the protesters, including one who spit on his face.
We are your baby-sitters, we clean your hotels, we baby-sit your kids, Rivera told protesters, according to the USA Today.
Murrieta Mayor Alan Long opposed the decision to transfer the children and adults to Murrieta and vowed to keep the city safe.
According to a statement posted Sunday on his Facebook page, Long said: Murrieta expects our federal government to enforce our laws, including the deportation of illegal immigrants caught crossing our borders, not disperse them into local communities.
Long was successful in stopping two other transfers of unaccompanied minors and adults from Texas. But after the federal government notified him on Friday that a group of immigrants would be transferred on Tuesday, he urged residents to protest.
At a Murrieta City Council meeting following the protest on Tuesday, Long told supporters, according to the DailySoCal.com:
Remember, that these are human beings that are being transported around. They are fleeing a less desirable place to come to the greatest nation in the world, and I dont blame them for wanting to do that. The problem is the process by which they get here, and are allowed to stay here. Thats whats broken. We support the passion to change the process by which this is being done, and ask not that you soften your stance, but remember your humanity.
Tuesdays protest comes as the federal government is seeing an influx of unaccompanied minors coming to the U.S. from Central America. More than 52,000 unaccompanied minors and 39,000 adults with children have been caught trying to cross the Southwest border illegally since last October.
SEE ALSO: Jan Brewer asks for action against surge of unaccompanied minors
