Buses of undocumented immigrant children and families will allegedly be escorted by federal agents in riot gear when they arrive in Murrieta, Calif., on Monday, New York Daily News reported, nearly a week after a wall of American flag-waving protestors blocked the arrival of detainees from overcrowded Texas facilities.
"Officers out there warned people that federal agents will be in Murrieta on Monday - they are going to get the next bus through no matter what. Riot gear and shields will be used to push the crowd back," Jeremy Oliver, a resident in nearby Temecula, told Breitbar News Network.
A Border Patrol spokesman declined to comment if federal agents in riot gear would be present, and wouldn't provide any details about claims of another wave of immigrant transfers coming to Murrieta. "Due to security considerations, we are not providing any further information regarding the schedule or location of migrant transfers at this time," Ralph DeSio, from the Customs and Border Protection office in San Diego, told the Daily News. "Our foremost priority is the safety of the DHS personnel who are conducting these transfers and the welfare of those who have been entrusted to their custody."
The Murrieta Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on the report as well.
Last Tuesday, three Homeland Security buses carrying illegal immigrants into Southern California were rerouted after 150 angry protestors blocked the group from reaching a San Diego processing center. The buses, with 140 people on board, were eventually forced to turn around and be rerouted to the Border Patrol station in nearby San Ysidro. The incident garnered widespread attention, with six protesters getting arrested at a Friday demonstration staged near the Murrieta Border Patrol station.
Murrieta City Manager Rick Dudley blasted the protests as a "black eye" on the Riverside suburb, blaming outsiders for taking over the demonstrations to highlight the highly polarized immigration debate. "We should show everyone what a truly compassionate and caring community Murrieta is," Dudley wrote in a note to the town.
Murrieta Alan Long urged concerned residents to reach out to their federal representatives, and request Congress and the White House to fix the border problems instead of taking to the streets. "I guarantee you, if a bus were to arrive at the Murrieta Border Patrol and those aliens were here, you would see that we would treat them with compassion," he said on CNN's "State of the Union."
In what President Obama has called a humanitarian crisis, the U.S. government is struggling to process and accommodate more than 52,000 unaccompanied children who have been detained since October.
