Buses carrying migrant families arrived to the U.S.-Mexican border station of San Ysidro after being blocked by protesters in Murrieta.
Protesters waving American flags blocked the buses Tuesday afternoon.
The undocumented immigrants were on federal buses and were being transferred to the Riversie County city at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility.
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The first group out of an estimated 140 total was flown from detention facilities in Texas to San Diego, then taken by bus to Murrieta, where some local residents camped out to protest beginning early in the morning.
Stories, A vocal group of protesters blocked the buses, filled with families detained after entering the country illegally in Texas, when they arrived just after 2 p.m.
The three buses turned around and headed south on the 15 Freeway to the San Ysidro border station.
The plan was for the immigrants to be be given background checks before being reunited with family members across the country while their cases are processed. Authorities said most of the immigrants are families, and the move is designed to ease overcrowding at border facilities strained by an influx of unaccompanied children that have flooded the system.
City leaders in Murrieta oppose the transfers, saying they are burdens on their town and raise safety concerns.
Mayor Alan Long said on his Facebook page Monday that while he continues to oppose the use of Murrieta’s facilities to handle the transfers, he and other city officials have put together a system of checks to ensure the community’s safety.
“This decision was made by the federal government and is not within our local authority to change. Clearly, this is a failed system that is spreading the cost and needed resources to handle these situations on the backs of local communities. Nevertheless, we must react and put a plan in place,” he said in the statement.
Randon Lane, a Murrieta city councilman, stressed that the families arriving will be reunited with relatives already in the U.S.
“They have to know the person, so (officials) are calling them up and verifying the information, and that’s where they’re sending them,” he said.
After leaving the processing center, the immigrants will be taken to transportation centers. Nonprofits and several Central American consulates are expected to help fund the last leg of transport.
Some local residents have loudly opposed the use of Murrieta’s facilities. In addition to the protest outside the facility to coincide with the buses' arrival, the Tuesday night Murrieta City Council meeting is also expected to be full of opponents of the plan.
"What's going to happen to our schools? What's going to happen to the community in general?" asked resident Jim Pace.
The move comes amid a massive increase in the number of children and adolescents making the dangerous desert trek alone, without family, officials say, sparking what President Barack Obama has deemed an "urgent humanitarian crisis.”
Last year, the federal government housed about 25,000 minors who were going through deportation proceedings alone. This year, that number is expected to swell to 60,000.
The president has asked Congress for more than $2 billion in emergency funding to deal with the situation, and has said the crisis is forcing the hand of legislators to move on immigration reform, lest he take executive action to ease the pressure on the borders.
Immigrants rights advocates in Los Angeles have called on the president and local leaders to move swiftly on immigration reform.
“There is no logical reason why this backlog exists. It exists because they keep denying people their due process and their ability to reunite with their families,” Xiomara Corpeno, lead organizer for the nonprofit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles, said at a press conference Monday.
A second wave of immigrants is expected to be transported to Murrieta on Friday.
Gadi Schwartz and Tony Shin contributed to this report.