The call was to support other agencies, but pro-immigrant organizations launched an alert to prepare the community.
Presumably to help other agencies control the riots, the border patrol deployed officers in riot uniforms and long weapons throughout San Diego County.
The complaint from immigrant rights organizations was confirmed by the regional chief of the border patrol itself, Aaron Heitke, who posted photos of armed agents on social media at a site where a vigil in memory of George Floyd and against police violence.
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office, to which the border patrol belongs, "has received requests to help other law enforcement agencies in the wake of the civil unrest," the entity's chief reported.
The border patrol in San Diego has just over 1,000 officers. However, that agency did not respond to requests from the press to find out how many agents are participating in the operation.
The only recorded riots were Saturday night when protesters smashed business windows and burned two bank branches in La Mesa, one of the 18 cities in San Diego County.
Outside of that day, the protests in San Diego have been peaceful. Sheriff Bill Gore said in a statement that those protesting do so peacefully.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in San Diego asked for its part to have with the protesters the patience that the authorities have had with armed white subjects who take state offices.
Alert the community
As of Monday morning, no organization assisting migrants had reported arrests, but the Rapid Response Network coalition issued an alert to the deployment of police and other immigration agents.
"The border patrol and ICE (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office) have been deployed to respond to protests and riots in the county," warned the coalition, which asked migrants to inform themselves and report the presence of migration agents to telephone number 1. (619) 536 0823.
"Call if the migrant comes to your home, to work, or to your neighborhood, in order to receive support from the emergency response network," the group insisted.
The Network is a coalition of all immigrant and civil rights organizations created in 2019 to support the immigrant and refugee communities in San Diego County.
Legal representation is provided by Jewish Family Services, which provides advice and representation with attorneys. It also houses asylees and refugees in San Diego County or in transit to other places after receiving asylum.
The alert is also due to the fact that the border patrol has not deported migrants to the neighboring city of Tijuana for a couple of weeks, as it did immediately since COVID-19 began, but rather, through an agreement with the government of Mexico, now they take them to Mexico City, 3,000 miles from Tijuana.
The Border Communities Coalition, which represents hundreds of towns and cities on both sides of the border, has warned that the deployment of both Border Patrol agents and CBP is taking place across the country.
Vicky Gaubeca, the coalition's executive director, said that "the border is often a testing ground for police tactics that are then used against our brothers and sisters of color in the interior of the country."
He said the abuse that border communities have faced now carries to the country's main cities.
In a Twitter message, Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan confirmed that his agents and resources are deployed across the country during protests following the death of George Floyd.
Morgan said the "mission was to confront illegal looting across the country, not just on the border."
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortes warned for her part that CBP lacks complete transparency and that it could be a dangerous force without control because it is the agency with the most personnel in the country, more than 60,000 agents, including the 20,000 patrollers on the border.
Journalist Matt Gutman, who covers Homeland Security for ABC, reported that CBP even started using his drone, with which he watches over the border, to spy on demonstrations in Minneapolis after the arrest of police officer Derek Chauvin.
