The national controversy over a surge of Central American immigrants illegally crossing the U.S. border established a new battleground this week in a Southern California small town where angry crowds thwarted detained migrants from entering their community. In a faceoff Tuesday with three buses carrying the migrants behind screened-off windows, the demonstrators chanted "Go back home!" and "USA" and successfully forced the coaches to leave Murrieta, CNN affiliate KFMB reported. The buses instead took the 140 or so undocumented immigrants to U.S. processing centers at least 80 miles away, in the San Diego and El Centro areas, federal officials say.
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"The problem still is there. The problem is in Washington, D.C.," says Murrieta mayor
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Immigrant rights advocate denounces "anti-immigrant hate language"
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140 undocumented Central American immigrants arrive in California from Texas
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Protesters block them from being processed at the Murrieta Border Patrol station
A mix of poverty, violence and smugglers' false promises is prompting the @placeholder inflow.