San Diego port police to migrants at park: Leave, or face arrest

She was still processing the news of her pregnancy from the day before when police showed up at the park with more news: Leave, or risk eventual citation and arrest. 

The Venezuelan mother of three — now with a fourth on the way — had been living inside a tent at the park with her husband and kids for weeks. Inflation and an increasingly authoritarian regime drove them from their home country earlier this year.

Now, they said, they have nowhere to go.

A local shelter told them the waitlist is monthslong. The husband is desperate to work, but he’s still waiting to receive a work permit. Until they can afford a roof over their heads, the park is their only option, they said. 

“We just need a little chance. We need to get ahead,” the husband said. Both did not want to be named for fear that talking to the media could affect their immigration case.

Port of San Diego Harbor Police gave notice this week to dozens of asylum-seekers and other migrants living at a park that officers would soon be clearing the encampment, citing health and safety concerns. The news stoked fear and anxiety among families with young children with nowhere else to go.

The port’s action marks the latest example of governments clearing homeless encampments across California. Late last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to remove encampments on state property. That followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that upheld governments’ ability to ban people from sleeping in public. 

Those who remain in the park in violation of the port’s code, which prohibits park use at night, camping and the storage of personal property, could be cited or arrested, Brianne Mundy Page, a port spokesperson, said in a statement to inewsource.

Page did not give a specific timeframe as to when the encampment would be cleared, but said they would give “adequate notice and opportunity to remove or retrieve belongings.”

“We hear and share the community’s concerns about this challenging issue, and our response is to approach it with as much compassion and humanity as we can,” Page said. 

Since at least May, a growing number of migrants have flocked to the park with tents as they confront San Diego’s high cost of living and dire shelter shortage. 

Migrants who spoke to inewsource said they don’t know where they’ll go after police force them out. inewsource is not identifying the park due to fear from volunteers that migrants could be harassed. 

Heidy Salazar, another migrant from Venezuela, said she woke up at 6 a.m. Tuesday to police delivering the news. 

“If they take us out of here tonight, what are we going to do?” Salazar said.

“I’m panicking,” she said later.

Police enforcement at the park came a day after a local TV station ran a news story featuring local residents who complained about the migrants there. They said the migrants living there have affected their own families’ ability to use the park. 

But migrants said they are just trying to take care of themselves and their families, and have been maintaining the park and cleaning up after themselves. 

Ruth Mendez, an aid volunteer who has been coordinating support for the migrants, said clearing the encampment would only traumatize the children and push migrants into more dangerous situations. 

“It’s terrible. I have no words for it,” she said. 

Dozens of tents lined the edges of the park as migrants waited with uncertainty over how long they could stay. Some groups had set up makeshift kitchens. They use the bathroom at the park to bathe. Kids play in the jungle gym. 

While three kids rode scooters and bicycles across the grass lawn, anxious parents worried about where they would go in the coming days. 

“We don’t know. We don’t know,” Luz Vasquez said. She has been there since June with her husband and two sons. 

For now Vasquez watches over her kids while her husband works. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, police had not yet cleared the encampment.