Somalis Settling In San Diego, Challenges Remain

Journey To Asylum: Somalia To San Diego

Hundreds of Somalis have risked everything for a long and difficult asylum journey to the U.S. Federal investigators say Somalis are traveling from their homeland to Kenya where they obtain false passports and fly to Cuba. From Cuba, they travel to Central America where they meet up with human smugglers. The smugglers take the Somalis by truck to Mexico. In Mexico, the Somalis surrender themselves to immigration officials who accept their names and take their pictures without verification, according to federal agents. Then the Somalis are given expulsion documents which allow them to move freely in Mexico. They fly to Tijuana and walk across the border into the United States where the expulsion documents give them the identification they need to ask for political asylum. (Click on the map below to track their journey)