With thousands of undocumented immigrants crossing the U.S. border this year and many of those being children, what President Obama had already called a "humanitarian crisis" became outright conflict in California Tuesday as protesters blocked a bus.
Protesters got in front of three buses carrying undocumented immigrants in Murrieta Tuesday afternoon, forcing them to stop. (Via KGTV)
Local stations in San Diego tracked the buses on the ground and from the air. While police tried to clear the road, the protesters eventually forced the buses to turn around. (Via KFMB)
KGTV showed protesters and counter protesters arguing well into the night and well after the buses had left. The station reported several people yelling racial slurs.
As one U.S. Border Patrol agent put it, the protests had little practical effect aside from a brief delay for the immigrants on board the buses since they were simply driven to a different location for processing. However, the vitriol shown during the confrontation underscored a larger debate.
The number of immigrant children crossing into the U.S. at Texas increased significantly this year, and many are coming from violence-ridden countries like Guatemala or Honduras instead of just Mexico. (Via CNN)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: "We now have an actual humanitarian crisis on the border."
President Obama has used the crisis to try to spur immigration reform after last year's so-called Gang of Eight in the Senate failed to convince House to pass — or really even consider — new laws. (Via The White House)
Vice President Biden also traveled to Guatemala in late June to encourage parents not to send their children with smugglers in an attempt to reach the U.S. (Via Entravision)
The White House said it expects 60,000-80,000 children to seek safe haven this year without their parents. (Via CBS)
Many of Tuesday's protesters in California said they didn't have a problem with immigrants entering the U.S., but they wanted them to do it legally. (Via San Diego Union-Tribune)
Wednesday morning, KGTV shot video of a bus presumably filled with the same immigrants as Tuesday's confrontation leaving a U.S. Border Patrol facility in San Ysidro, but border patrol SUVs blocked field crews from following that bus.
