Carl DeMaio: Open border policies absolutely contribute to homelessness

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – The pandemic-era Title 42 policy to block immigrants at the southern border, has officially expired. Thursday evening, officials around the county are asking for federal aid, even as the White House rolls out new rules.

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced a new rule in the wake of the expiring Title 42 which requires refugees and migrants to first seek and be denied asylum in another country before reaching the United States.

While Title 42 was in place, 2.7 million illegal immigrants were deported from the country. Former President Donald Trump called the policy very “successful.”

Many of the migrants at the border in San Ysidro have been transported by authorities to the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Mission Valley, where they are said to begin processing and given shelter.

But where do they go after that?

Chairman of Reform California, Carl DeMaio, joined KUSI’s Good Morning San Diego to explain why these failed border policies have led to an “epic number of people on our streets.”

DeMaio told KUSI’s Paul Rudy that, “by any count, the Democrats simply refuse to do anything about the homeless problem. Whether it’s the housing first scam that they’ve been running for 15 years in California, that no other state is really doing, which is why our homelessness is up and theirs is down. Or the open border. Both of these things do contribute, absolutely, to homelessness.”

San Diego’s homeless population is at a record high, the official Downtown San Diego Partnership count for April 2023 found a total of 1,958 homeless in downtown San Diego alone.