I headed down to the Carmel Valley migrant camp on Tuesday to have a little snoop around. I was hoping to find some of the people I wrote about in my series on the camps earlier this year.
The camp wasn’t exactly deserted, but it also wasn’t the thriving community it was just months ago. I couldn’t find anyone I knew or even recognized. There were no burrito trucks, no groups of men standing around watching a portable television or having haircuts.
There have been reports in the last few weeks that a group of San Diego Minutemen has been going into the camps and “hassling” the migrants who live there. I got a call a couple of weeks ago from one of the advocates who works with the men, cautioning me that there could be a risk to the migrants’ safety. Perhaps that’s why many of the men appear to have left.
On another note, the tomato fields that border the camp have become overgrown and weed-infested of late. A contact tells me the tomato plantations will soon be built over with new tract homes and new streets. What has been an island of brown in a sea of grey will soon be disappearing, and the nearby camp will be almost completely surrounded by new homes.