Earlier this week, the city became the latest flashpoint in the intensifying immigration debate when a crowd of protesters waving American flags blocked buses carrying women and children who were flown from overwhelmed Texas facilities.
Rumors had swirled among anti-immigration activists near a U.S. Border Patrol station in Southern California that the agency would try again to bus in some of the immigrants who have flooded across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Instead, they got dueling anti- and pro-immigration rallies Friday.
The crowd of 200 outside the station in Murrieta waved signs and sometimes shouted at each other. One banner read: “Proud LEGAL American. It doesn’t work any other way.” Another countered: “Against illegal immigration? Great! Go back to Europe!”
Law enforcement officers separated the two sides and contained them on one approach to the station, leaving open an approach from the opposite direction.
It was not certain, however, that any buses would arrive on Friday. Because of security concerns, federal authorities have said they will not publicize immigrant transfers among border patrol facilities. By late afternoon many demonstrators were leaving.
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