El Cajon mayor says hundreds of migrants living at San Diego airport: 'People have nowhere to go'
El Cajon Mayor Bill Wells joined 'FOX & Friends First' to discuss why migrants are congregating at the major airport and how it is worsening the state's homeless crisis.
Hundreds of migrants have taken up residence in the San Diego International Airport with "no place to go" as California shelters are filled to capacity with the state's homeless population.
The mayor of El Cajon, California, called out state and federal government officials Tuesday for policies burdening his community.
"California has basically made it completely un-criminal to be homeless in California. And because of that, there's no places in the shelters. There's no places in the hospitals. There's no place for them to go at all. And then you add to this new migrant crisis and things get out of control and people have nowhere to go," Mayor Bill Wells told "FOX & Friends First."
BORDER SECTOR SEES 550% INCREASE IN MIGRANT APPREHENSIONS LAST FISCAL YEAR
A BNSF Railway train in Mexico was seen carrying migrants on top as it headed to the U.S. southern border. (Auden Cabello / @CabelloAuden )
Over 300 migrants have been hunkering down at the airport in recent days waiting for flights out of the Golden State, which has a homeless population of approximately 172,000.
Wells said the San Diego area has been inundated with 42,000 migrants over the past two-and-a-half months, leading to "street releases" in his community.
"This is exacerbating our already unimaginable homeless crisis, which California has created," Wells said.
"The county of San Diego recently spent $3 million on a migrant shelter that was supposed to last several months. They're running out of money after the second month. And this is local money that should be used to help local people. But this is obviously not helping whatsoever," he added.
The mayor claimed his town had received "nothing" from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom or the Biden administration, and instead has been "gaslit" about the situation.
"There's almost no communication, there's certainly no plans to help anybody," he said. "Mayorkas, he should be doing something about this. He should be stopping people crossing the border. But he's not doing his job. Governor Newsom is doing nothing to help the problem. Just a lot of rhetoric and happy talk about how things are going to be great."
"They're telling you there's no problem, there's no problem with the border, everything's under control, where our own eyes can tell us that there is everything but no problem, it is a significant problem," he said.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
SBCS, the nonprofit that manages the San Diego Welcome Center, is running several buses from its facility to the airport each day, the New York Post reported.
A SBSC spokesperson denied that migrants are being sent to the airport several days before their scheduled departures, telling the San Diego Union-Tribune that migrants are required to show they have a flight booked for the same or next day before being transported.
Fox News First
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
By entering your email and clicking the Subscribe button, you agree to the Fox News Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, and agree to receive content and promotional communications from Fox News. You understand that you can opt-out at any time.