JACUMBA, Calif. (KGTV) — On Friday, just three days after President Biden's executive order on immigration, there were no migrants in Jacumba.
It's unclear if the migrants aren't there because of the new rule, regular migration patterns, quick processing by the Border Patrol, or the heat.
"I think people either cross either really early in the morning or during the night so maybe by the time we get here they may have already been picked up," says Mandy Lein, the operations coordinator for Al Otro Lado, an organization helping migrants with supplies or legal aid for their asylum claims.
The order caps the number of migrants seeking asylum if daily numbers hit more than 2,500. Once daily averages go back down, they would again be able to seek asylum.
Thursday and Friday temperatures in Jacumba were close to the 90s, with the first heat wave of the season triggering an excessive heat warning and raising concern from volunteers about migrants who travel in these conditions.
"We're definitely concerned about dehydration, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, especially with children and elderly folks 55 and over," says Lein.
Despite Jacumba being empty, Border Patrol agents say that is not reality. Border Patrol couldn't officially provide numbers, but, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, Local 1613, Manny Bayon, shared the following:
On Tuesday, when the president announced his order, there were 2,641 people in Border Patrol custody in the San Diego Sector. On Friday morning, they had 2,100 people in custody.
ABC 10News contacted CBP headquarters to find out if and how the agents' job have changed since the order went into effect, but so far have not heard back.
