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San Isidro, California – When humanitarian workers decided to demolish an elaborate tent setup – erected directly on the border wall – they had not seen immigrants for a month.
A year ago, when a historic number of migrants arrived at the border, the American Friends Services Committee, a human rights organization founded in the National Quaker, led to their assistance. Eventually, the group received enough donations to build three canopies, where they stored food, clothing and medical supplies.
However, the immigrant intersection stopped, causing an impressive change to the landscape along California’s southernmost tip.
Shelters where immigrants were once closed were barren in makeshift camps that immigrants had been waiting for processing, and nonprofits began shifting services to established US immigrants facing deportation, or immigrants trapped in southern Mexico.
Meanwhile, the Border Patrol strengthened its six-mile border wall with concert wire, with the support of 750 US troops.
American Friends Service Committee Program Program Coordinator Adriana Jasso packs clothing, food, water and other supplies that were once provided to immigrants across the US in an area known as Whiskey 8 in San Isidro.
Recently, an almost empty canopy remained at an aid station built by the Service Commission several miles west of the San Isidro border intersection. Three assistant workers wearing blue surgical gloves were packing boxes labeled “children/hydration”, “tea and hot coco” and “small sweater.” They didn’t need them now.
According to the agency, agents of the San Diego sector’s border patrol forces currently make around 30 to 40 arrests per day. This decreases from over 1,200 per day when immigrants arrived in the area in April.
Adriana Giasso, coordinating the Service Commission’s US Mexican program, recalled her busy time and group’s efforts to help. “This was the first time we’ve provided this level of humanitarian assistance,” Jasso said.
But recently, “It’s a closure of experiences for now, because life can be unpredictable,” she said.
In May 2023, the Biden administration ended its pandemic-era policy in which immigrants were denied the right to seek asylum and quickly returned to Mexico. In a lead-up to policy changes, immigrants have descended to the border by thousands.
The two parallel fences make up many of the boundary barriers near San Diego. Asylum seekers began scaling the fence closest to Mexico and handed it over to Border Patrol agents.
Days pass before the agent returns to an area known as Whiskey 8. Meanwhile, Jasso and her colleagues drained hot instant soup, fresh fruit and a backpack through slots on the fence.
The last time Giasso saw immigration was on February 15th. This is a group of 20 people, composed primarily of Indian and Chinese men.
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) volunteer Emma Starkey is packed into an area called Whiskey 8 in San Isidro. “It’s been about a month since I met anyone,” Starkey said of immigration.
Then a storm came and removed the two canopies. Jasso and her team took it as a sign to tear the rest. The foul smell of the contaminated Tijuana River wafted through the morning air as Giasso carried the plastic shelf units out of the canopy.
Inside the canopy, one of the last remaining items was a stuffed Minnie Mouse, her bubblegum pink shoes were grey and stained. A young girl handed it to Jasso through the fence.
“The Border Patrol refused to take it on her,” Yasso said. “I promised her I would take care of it, and I promised her that someone would love it like she did.”
Just as Jasso had stuffed into the Whiskey 8, Border Patrol held a press conference a few miles away.
Parked on the border wall east of the San Isidro border intersection, it served as a backdrop to explain the partnership between the border security and defense sectors.
Our pair of soldiers are turning to Tijuana, behind the border wall, on a new concert wire along the US-Mexican border near San Isidro.
The barrier gates were opened and cross-border patrols, Marines and Army officials showed reporters how both fences were now covered with concerto wires.
You can hear loud music from Tijuana. There, construction workers were building a highway towards the wall separating Mexico from the US.
The troops created an “obstacle design” by welding metal rods to the top of the fence, pointing to Mexico and attaching more wires onto it.
Jeffrey Starnaker, acting chief patrol agent for the San Diego sector, said additional wires installed since the military arrived on January 23rd delayed illegal entry.
Starnaker said federal prosecutors in San Diego had accepted more than 1,000 border-related criminal cases this fiscal year. And following Trump’s tariff threat, Mexico vowed to send 10,000 National Guard personnel to its northern border. These forces now meet with US agents several times a week and conduct synchronous patrols on each side of the border, Starnaker said.
Tijuana construction workers work high above the border wall, featuring a new concert wire along the US-Mexican border near San Isidro.
“What we see behind us here today is the result of a true government-wide effort, from Marines laying miles of concert wires along border infrastructure to soldiers deploying our scope trucks and remote video surveillance cameras,” he said.
While only the Border Patrol can arrest immigrants who enter illegally, Starnaker said detecting immigrants to use military personnel will allow agents to spend more time.
Last April, San Diego became the top region along the border due to the arrival of immigrants for the first time in decades. Stalnaker said immigrant arrests have fallen by 70% this fiscal year compared to the same period last year.
“To say there has been a dramatic change is an understatement,” he said.
However, the stalker noted that the border patrol is hoping for an increase in migrants’ attempts to enter California as “we continue to lock and secure the border here.”
Furthermore, to the east, Jakumba Hot Springs was once an additional outdoor camping location, where hundreds of migrants slept in plastic tarps (or tents, or tents if you’re lucky) and gathered around a brush-fueled campfire to keep you warm.
Sam Schultz approaches Moon Camp. There, migrants rest and camp and leave after crossing the US/Mexican border near the compiled town of Jacumba Hot Springs. “It’s hard to maintain it unless you meet anyone at all,” Schultz said of his efforts to keep food and water in the area’s immigrants.
The tanks filled with water for immigrants, tires to sit, and sandbags used to measure tents remain at Mooncamp near the decorated town of Jakumba Hot Springs.
Sam Schultz, a retired international relief worker who lived near Jakumba for nine years, once delivered daily water, hot meals and blankets to immigrants there. When the camp appeared a few miles from his home, he felt forced to help.
The tent that once covered the campsite just off the old highway 80 is gone. Schultz’s son recently carried them away because they no longer needed them.
Schultz visits three sites several times a week to see if water needs to be refilled for immigrants.
“We’re not touched by the water,” he said.
Legal aid and humanitarian organisations that supported immigration have displaced the operations from the border.
The Los Angeles-based Immigration Defenderslow Center served immigrants who were bused from the border by the governor of Texas. The group also provided legal assistance to those waiting in Tijuana for customs and border security appointments. After taking office, President Trump quickly cancelled existing appointments and ended the use of telephone applications the Biden administration used to schedule them.
Lindsay Tozzi Lawski, co-founder and CEO of Law Center, said that since arrests by immigration agents increased around Los Angeles, the organization has begun to concentrate on detained defenses from recently detained immigrants.
Oscar Mendoza came out of the tent with her daughter Melina, 15, and Dolores, 12, along with the Movimento juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana. Mendoza and his family fled for the border from Morelos, Mexico, for all the violence that his family is threatened.
Erika Pinheiro, executive director of Al Otro Lado, said there are not many people stuck in Tijuana as many of the deported people to Mexico are sent south. She said the organization brought staff to Tapachula, adjacent to Mexico City and Guatemala.
Pinheiro said the San Isidro-based organization has recently expanded its project to support non-Spanish-speaking immigrants in Mexico.
The American Friends Service Committee has also shifted its work to focus on providing “know Your Rights” presentations at schools, churches and community centers.
But back to Whiskey 8, Jasso said the organization will continue to provide direct humanitarian assistance to migrants.
Border patrol agents ride along the US/Mexico border wall near an area called Whiskey 8 where immigrants received water and food in San Isidro.
She recalls learning about the three migrants who died in the wilderness of Mount Otai earlier this month after sought help during a storm that brought near freezing temperatures to harsh terrain.
As immigrants are currently unable to seek legal ways to enter the United States through the asylum process, advocates expect more will begin to risk their lives by trying to enter illegally through more remote and dangerous terrain. Desperate people may even try to jump over all the newly installed concert wires.
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