Title 42 has officially ended with the COVID emergency restrictions being lifted. Migrants can apply to seek asylum in United States once again. This can be a lengthy process that takes years. The numbers of migrants being brought into the United States has more than doubled. Processing centers are having a hard time keeping up with the numbers. Resources are stretched thin.
Riverside County is the only county in the United States that has non-border processing centers. One of those locations is in Murrieta. The facility only has so many beds available. There is concern the facility won’t be able to handle the amount of migrants that are expected. In 2014, the Murrieta Border Patrol Station was the flashpoint for protests with people blocking inbound buses full of migrants. On two separate occasions in the last couple of years, migrants were dropped off on Inland Empire streets without resources. Riverside County has spent almost $10 million on the migrant problem and expects to be reimbursed by both the federal and state governments. Some areas such as the Coachella Valley have shelters set up should migrants need to be relocated. A federal judge on Friday blocked the release of migrants without tracking measures.
