Murrieta’s Anti-Migrant Protests Cost City $50k in Police Overtime

By Julianne Hing Jul 11, 2014

Drawing out protestors has turned out to be a costly move for Murrieta, Calif., mayor Alan Long. Long projects that the city has doled out $50,000 in overtime for police officers who’ve had to work the protest lines in front of the city’s border patrol station, the Los Angeles Times reports. In recent weeks demonstrators, who Long encouraged to come out, have repeatedly blocked the attempted drop-off of child migrants. 

Tens of thousands of child migrants, the majority from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years. To deal with the incoming flows, the federal government has started processing migrants at border patrol stations around the country. None have made it to Murrieta, though, as protestors have blocked streets. On July 4, raucous protests ended in six arrests, The Desert Sun reported.

Read more of Colorlines’ coverage of the unaccompanied minors crisis.