Murrieta is a rural outback in Southern California that's getting its moment of fame by dramatizing both sides of the latest political crisis over immigration. Last week, protesters there stopped immigration officials from unloading buses of Central American children who had crossed the border in Texas, which didn’t have room to house them to be officially processed.
Last night, resident Ilene Barker told Saul Gonzalez of KCRW public radio that the US can’t afford any more immigrants. Meantime, across town, Cassandra Rules took part in a counter-protest on the side of the immigrant kids. The opposing voices in Murietta reflect a nation divided over what to do about those 57,000 children who have risked abuse, injury and death to make their way to the United States from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.