On March 24, the Washington Examiner reported on the partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services, and the County of San Diego to house up to 1,400 illegal immigrant children:

A Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement spokesperson said in an email Wednesday that it will soon open an “emergency intake site” to hold up to 1,400 children in downtown San Diego, approximately 20 miles north of the international border. It is the fifth pop-up facility set up to accommodate thousands of children arriving at the border weekly since President Joe Biden took office in late January.

“The Emergency Intake Site will provide ORR with needed capacity to accept children from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) into its care where they can be safely processed, cared for and either released to a sponsor or transferred to an appropriate ORR shelter for longer-term care,” the official wrote.

On March 28, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria took to CNN to announce that the influx of migrant children had begun, and the San Diego Convention Center, best known for hosting the Comic-Con International Convention, was being used to house, feed, care and educate these children.

San Diego is a welcoming city not just in words but in deeds. Thank you @PamelaBrownCNN for the opportunity to share how @SDConventionCtr is stepping up to serve children in need. pic.twitter.com/8bsPF5vTf1

— Todd Gloria (@ToddGloria) March 29, 2021

Gloria said in the video,

“This is a humanitarian mission […] We’re going to start classes here tomorrow. We’re going to do our very best to do right by these kids between now and the middle of July, welcoming tourism and conventions back to San Diego sometime in August.”

The focus of California government officials appears to be on illegal immigrant children and their well-being, while virtue-signaling about how welcoming and compassionate San Diego is to children in need. San Diego’s own children, the ones whose parents pay taxes for that very same Convention Center, have yet to return to in-person learning. Apparently, their needs are less important.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Jim Desmond noticed the disconnect:

The San Diego County Board of Education will be sending teachers for in-person learning for the migrant children at the convention center. It's great there's in-person learning for them, I wish every child in San Diego County was allowed the same opportunity.

— Supervisor Jim Desmond (@jim_desmond) March 29, 2021

As did Reform California founder and radio host Carl DeMaio:

BREAKING: San Diego Democrat Mayor brags to CNN about his decision to offer in-person classes to illegal immigrants that arrived this weekend at our Convention Center – all while his own city's schools remain CLOSED to actual citizens!!

— Carl DeMaio (@carldemaio) March 29, 2021

The San Diego Unified School District has presented a vague plan to open for in-person learning in mid-April. No hard date has been given to parents on when their child will be able to attend school outside the home, even though most teachers have been vaccinated, and the CDC has given updated guidelines on how schools can safely re-open.

It is truly amazing how quickly the County can mount an in-person learning initiative for illegal immigrant children, and recruit teachers who are apparently ready and willing to do this work, yet there has been no urgency to return the children of citizens to in-person learning, while many local officials and the teachers’ unions have done their level best to thwart parents desires and ignore their pleas.

Leslie Hofmeister, a San Diego Parent and Co-Founder of Reopen SDUSD, went on KUSI News to express her frustration on the lack of concrete or definitive plans given by the school district:

“Outlandish metrics that are far more stringent than the CDC recommendations and CDPH guidance regarding teacher vaccinations and community spread, and lack of agreement between district officials and teacher’s union to timeline presented.  And even if by some miracle, they agree to reopen on April 12, the most they are committed to is hybrid learning which has no defined criteria for number of hours students will be on site in any given week.  Until the majority of students are in school the majority of the time- the school district has not done enough!”

Apparently, the Department of Health and Human Services is well-funded enough to educate illegal immigrant children. Where has all that money from the “America Rescue Plan” to reopen schools gone to? Asking for the legal citizens of San Diego and their children.