This week, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors voted to allocate $3 million to organizations helping process migrants who are dropped off in San Diego by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.
But organizations are stretched thin waiting for details.
In Oceanside, makeshift processing stations have been set up inside of a parking structure next to the transit center.
Volunteers and nonprofit organizations have been staffing the stations roughly from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week, to keep up with the migrants being dropped off by CBP.
They have been operating using money from their own pockets, volunteers and donations they've received.
Funding approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday has yet to be distributed.
"Right now we're really waiting and hoping that the county does the responsible thing and makes sure that those funds are supporting all of the migrants that are dropped off countywide," Oceanside City Councilmember Eric Joyce said. "Anytime the county does something, us, the North County, are having to be very loud to make sure that our voices are heard in those spaces."
He said some county staff had been assigned to help at the site, but more after-hour support is needed.
"We need people, and we need very short-term temporary shelter for the folks who have flights the following day," Joyce said. "We need shuttles to the airport to make sure people can get to their final destinations because, without an exception, everyone has been leaving the San Diego area."
Volunteers have donated their time and money; some even purchased items for the organizations leading the support efforts.
"I think the LGBTQ group is going to cut us a check today," said Elizabeth Dale, a volunteer from Bonsall. "When you go and buy five cases of bananas and oranges ... its $200 to $300. So they said to drop by and they would give us a check if we needed more."
She said donations of warm clothes, socks, undergarments and hygiene products grew scarce on a daily basis.
"It's almost impossible to estimate the amount of generosity that people had chipped in," said Max Disposti, the executive director of the North County LGBTQ Resource Center. "But, yes, our organizations ... hasn't received any money. So we are using donors, our own pockets ... to do what is right."
He said the North County LGBTQ Resource Center and Interfaith Community Services have been leading the operations to help the migrants.
With no end to the drop-offs in site, he said, financial support will help but won't solve the problem.
"The $3 million are not going to resolve everything because it's really a little drop in the bucket. The cost of these operations ... are really, really high. So we are all trying to find the solutions together," Disposti said. "This is not just us versus them. It's more about having county collaboration, Border Patrol collaboration, but also local cities."
The county did not say when or how the funds would be distributed but did say the goal was to have some sort of consolidation of where migrants are dropped off.
