Protesters Force DHS Buses Carrying Migrant Children To Be Rerouted

5f4fee91-Immigration Overload California

Protesters stand in the road blocking a bus carrying 140 immigrants on the way to be processed at the Murrieta border patrol station on Tuesday, July 1, 2014. The immigrants are bused to a border patrol facility in Murrieta, about an hour north of San Diego, for processing. Federal immigration authorities there will determine whether they will be held or released pending deportation proceedings.(AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, Sarah Burge) (AP Photo/The Press-Enterprise, ) MAGS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT (AP2014)

A chaotic scene greeted three Homeland Security buses carrying migrant children and families outside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility in Murrieta, Calif., about an hour north of San Diego.

According to the USA Today, more than a hundred American flag-waving protesters blocked the group from reaching a suburban processing center while getting into shouting matches with counter-demonstrators.

In the end, the buses were rerouted Tuesday to a different facility in San Diego within view of the Mexico border.

The standoff in Murrieta came after Mayor Alan Long urged residents to complain to elected officials about the plan to transfer the Central American migrants to California to ease overcrowding of facilities along the Texas-Mexico border.

Many protesters held U.S. flags, while others held signs reading "Stop Illegal Immigration" and "Illegals Out!"

"We can't start taking care of others if we can't take care of our own," protester Nancy Greyson, 60, of Murrieta, told the Desert Sun newspaper.

Another group of demonstrators in favor of immigration reform showed up and shouting matches between the different protesters erupted.

Lupillo Rivera, the brother of the late Mexican singer Jenni Rivera, was among the counter-protesters. "We are your baby-sitters, we clean your hotels, we baby-sit your kids," he screamed, between confrontations with individual demonstrators.

After the buses were blocked, federal authorities rerouted the vehicles to a freeway and then back toward San Diego.

The three buses were trailed by a half-dozen news crews during the two-hour trip. People near the San Diego facility were surprised by the caravan.

Juan Silva, 27, a welder in Chula Vista, said he thought officials were transporting drug traffickers. Then he heard the buses were carrying migrant families.

"I don't think people in that town should be against little kids," he said about the protesters in Murrieta. "We're not talking about rapists. We're talking about human beings. How would they feel if it was their kids?"

Many of the immigrants were detained while fleeing violence and extortion from gangs in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

After the migrants are processed, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will decide who can be released while awaiting deportation proceedings.

Earlier in the day, a chartered plane landed in San Diego with 136 migrants on board, according to a federal Department of Homeland Security official who was not authorized to be named when speaking on the issue.

It was the first flight planned for California under the federal government's effort to ease the crunch in the Rio Grande Valley and deal with the flood of Central American children and families fleeing to the United States.

The government is also planning to fly migrants to Texas cities and another site in California, and it has already taken some migrants to Arizona.

More than 52,000 unaccompanied children have been detained after crossing the Texas-Mexico border since October in what President Barack Obama has called a humanitarian crisis. Many of the migrants are under the impression that they will receive leniency from U.S. authorities.

Another flight was expected to take 140 migrants to a facility in El Centro, Calif., on Wednesday, said Lombardo Amaya, president of the El Centro chapter of the Border Patrol union. The Border Patrol would not confirm that arrival date.

Based on reporting by The Associated Press.