On her recent trip to Honduras, VOSD’s Maya Srikrishnan reunited with Denilson, a young Honduran man who had traveled in last fall’s migrant caravan to Tijuana, where she originally met him in November.
Since then, Denilson crossed into the United States and spent five months in detention, fighting his asylum case.
Denilson was deported from the United States the day before Srikrishnan arrived in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, for a recent reporting trip. They met up again there, where he recounted his experience in the caravan, his time in immigration detention and his deportation.
In a new story, Srikrishnan details Denilson’s story from when he first left Honduras with the caravan in October to their meeting in Honduras.
His story illustrates the threats that force migrants to flee, the arduous journeys they make to get to the border – and how many of their stories are bookended by being sent right back to where they started.
New Soccer Team Is Coming to San Diego
Several months ago, we got a visit from a man named Warren Smith, who had launched and led the Sacramento professional soccer team, Republic FC. He was interested in doing something in San Diego.
Turns out, he’s going to do it. Smith along with soccer legend Landon Donovan is launching a team here that will be affiliated with the United Soccer League, or USL. The USL is the second tier of professional soccer in the United States with 36 teams and two conferences. It’s not the MLS that Donovan had tried to help launch in San Diego with the now defunct SoccerCity plan, but it has one advantage: They’re not looking for a dime of public money or land.
The team, which has yet to be named will play in the University of San Diego’s Torero Stadium. Smith told us it’s going to be hard to launch the team by this winter but they’re going to try. They’re looking for investors to help pay the $10 million fee to join the league and to pay for expenses. Warren wouldn’t disclose the total amount of investment they’re seeking.
Here’s a Sports Illustrated piece about how it came together.
School Board Meeting Nearly Comes to Blows
Parents had to be held back by friends and district police as arguments broke out during a San Diego Unified School District school board meeting Tuesday, NBC San Diego reported. The parents were voicing concerns over a recent administrative shake-up at Lincoln High School and an incident involving police and students at Valencia Park Elementary School during public comment.
VOSD’s Will Huntsberry delved into Lincoln’s leadership woes in a recent story.
One of the parents at Tuesday’s meeting, Jamie Wilson, spoke about how her elementary school son was questioned by police for playing with fake money. Wilson has dealt with what she says is extreme over-policing of young people in southeastern San Diego before, when the San Diego Police Department took DNA from her son and documented him as a gang member. Since then, Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez passed a new state law closing the loophole that allowed SDPD to collect DNA from a juvenile without parental consent.
Quick News Hits
- The Port of San Diego approved a coastal development permit for the Chula Vista Bayfront’s $1 billion hotel and convention center – a major step forward for the long-awaited project. (Union-Tribune)
- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that gun shows at the Del Mar Fairgrounds can continue for now. But a bill by Assemblyman Todd Gloria that would ban the shows beginning in 2021 is still alive in the state Legislature. (City News Service)
- In a tweet, the White House celebrated new border wall construction in San Diego.
The Morning Report was written by Maya Srikrishnan and Scott Lewis, and edited by Sara Libby.