CAMPO, Calif. (Border Report) — The southern terminus of the world-renowned Pacific Crest Trail begins in this small community in the hills 50 miles east of San Diego.
It’s where people like Mason, from San Jose, start their 2,650-mile trek to the Canadian border.
But in recent weeks, it’s turned into an area where migrants are starting their own journey into the United States.
A Border Patrol source tells Border Report that Campo, California, has become an area where they are apprehending “hundreds of migrants” every day.
They said asylum-seekers have been forced to cross the border in this area because Mexico’s National Guard and immigration officers are patrolling Jacumé, an area to the east directly across the border from Jacumba, California.
Jacumba had become the busiest point for unlawful crossings in the San Diego Sector last fall.
But now, the patrols on the Mexican side of the border are preventing most migrants from entering the U.S. through that point.
Smugglers have turned to alternate routes to get people over or around the border barrier, and that has taken them to Campo.
A group of Peruvian nationals who had been apprehended by Border Patrol agents said they paid $2,100 per person to be led from Mexico City to Campo.
All said they were headed to either New York, New Jersey or Minneapolis.
“The only problems we had in Mexico were the police officers and soldiers, they all wanted money, wanted bribes to let us go,” said one migrant named Nora.
Nora stated it took her five days to from from Lima to Campo where she waited by a fire to stay warm in the 50-degree weather Wednesday morning.
“We’ve been waiting four hours to get taken from here,” she said.
The exact number of migrants who have been apprehended in Campo is not known as the Border Patrol does not make them public.
Campo, however, lies within the San Diego Sector, which has reported 120,124 migrant encounters as of January this fiscal year.
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