San Diego migrant shelter closes doors with numbers plummeting after Trump immigration crackdown: report
A large migrant shelter in San Diego is closing its doors as the county continues to see a drastic drop in asylum seekers since President Donald Trump took office.
As of Monday, CBS8 News San Diego reported, the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Mission Valley is returning to its original purpose and no longer serves as a migrant shelter.
The shelter was reportedly run by Catholic Charities. Fox News Digital reached out to the organization for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
This latest migrant shelter closure comes after the Jewish Family Service of San Diego announced in February it would close its center and lay off 115 employees due to “changes in federal funding and policy.”
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SAYS NYC’S ROOSEVELT HOTEL MIGRANT SHELTER WILL SOON CLOSE
Empty beds at a migrant shelter. (Stephanie Bennett/Fox News)
“Jewish Family Service of San Diego (JFS) is working to meet the evolving needs of the community in response to recent and anticipated federal policy changes,” the organization previously said. “With a deep commitment to its core value of ‘Welcome the Stranger,’ JFS is focusing its immigration efforts on providing pro bono legal services and community support resources.”
The shelter had operated in San Diego County as a regional migrant shelter for over six years prior to its closure.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) said it has not received new asylum-seeking families or individuals since the CBP One phone app went down Jan. 20.
The app, which allowed immigrants to be paroled into the U.S., was created during the first Trump administration to assist with scheduling cargo inspections.
A migrant shelter in San Diego is shutting down after receiving no new arrivals after the Trump administration’s termination of the CBP One app on Inauguration Day. (FOX 5 San Diego/Salvador Rivera/Border Report/Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
It expanded in 2023 to allow migrants to make an appointment at a port of entry to be allowed in, initially due to an exception from the Title 42 public health order. Since May, they have had the potential to be paroled into the U.S. as part of the Biden administration’s expansion of “lawful pathways.”
U.S. Border Patrol reports that year-over-year migrant encounters with its agents in February declined by nearly 95%.
According to the Los Angeles Times, arrests have gone from more than 1,200 per day during their peak last April to 30 to 40 per day.
“To say there has been a dramatic change would be an understatement,” Jeffrey Stalnaker, acting chief patrol agent of the San Diego sector of the border, told the newspaper.
President Donald Trump has cracked down on illegal immigration. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
As of the end of December, more than 936,500 individuals had made appointments to be paroled through the app, according to Customs and Border Protection.
“With migrants no longer able to use the CBP One application, the San Diego Rapid Response Network (SDRRN) Migrant Shelter Services, operated by JFS, has not received new asylum-seeking families and individuals released from short-term federal custody into our care. Due to these changes in federal funding and policy, the SDRRN Migrant Shelter Services will be paused until there is better understanding of future community needs,” the statement continued.
The organization received $22,077,365 in taxpayer-funded FEMA money in fiscal year 2024 despite claiming it received no funds, according to grant records on the FEMA website.
Illegal immigrants encamped in a Denver shelter. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
A massive migrant shelter in Manhattan was also closed in February after New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ office announced that “fewer than 45,000 migrants are in the city’s care.”
His office said that this number was “down from a high of 69,000 in January of 2024 and out of the more than 232,000 that have arrived in New York City seeking city services since the spring of 2022.”
Adams’ office said the Roosevelt Hotel shelter opened in May 2023 “during the height of the international asylum seeker crisis, with the city receiving an average of 4,000 arrivals each week.”
“The site has provided a variety of supportive services to migrants, including legal assistance, medical care and reconnection services, as well as served as a humanitarian relief center for families with children,” it added. “In recent months, the average number of registrants has decreased to approximately 350 per week. Going forward, these intake functions and supportive services will now be integrated into other areas of the system.”
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The converted site, which has about 1,000 rooms, has processed more than 173,000 migrants since its opening in May 2023, according to a previous statement by the city.
The City of Denver also scaled back migrant services that same month, closing four migrant shelters and announcing it would “consolidate shelters with the goal of saving the city millions of dollars.”
During the final few weeks of Joe Biden’s presidency, around 400-500 new migrants were requesting city help every week, the New York Post reported.
Fox News’ Bill Melguin, LIndsay Kornick and Greg Norman contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
