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Are undocumented immigrants being bused from California to Arizona?

By Carmela Guaglianone
YES

U.S. Customs and Border Protection occasionally transfers migrants from overcrowded border sectors to those with more capacity so they can be detained, processed and deported, rather than released. Political considerations are not a factor in the decision to transfer migrants.

The San Diego sector, one of nine along the southern border, recorded the greatest influx of migrant encounters since last October, which has resulted in a strain on the sector’s limited resources. Encounters increased 40% compared to the year prior, totalling more than 324,000.

The Yuma sector, comparatively, recorded less than a fifth of San Diego’s total U.S. Border Patrol Title 8 encounters, or when migrants are apprehended or detained for entering the country illegally.

Overall, encounters along the southern border have decreased by 25% between October 2023 and October 2024.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.
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