SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — About 40 percent of migrants fail to establish “credible fear” during their initial interviews with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in San Diego, according to statistics.

Credible fear is a benchmark required for migrants to establish how they will be persecuted or harmed if they are sent home due to political beliefs, sexual orientation, religious affiliation and other reasons.

USCIS provided Border Report with a spreadsheet showing that out of 154,595 interviews conducted from March 2023 through the first two weeks in March of this year in San Diego, 61,304 migrants failed to establish “a credible fear.”

The data, however, does not detail how many of these asylum-seekers were sent back to Mexico or their countries of origin, saying Immigration and Customs Enforcement and CBP are responsible for repatriating migrants.

According to San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond, more than 13,000 asylum-seekers who did establish a credible fear have been dropped off at transit centers in San Diego Since last month.

Most have been bused to the Iris Avenue trolley station just a few miles north of the border.

This practice began on Feb. 23 when a “welcome center” for migrants closed due to a lack of county funding.

At this site, migrants were provided with resources and transportation to continue their journey to their final destinations across the United States.

Border Patrol has said without this center, it can’t hold asylum-seekers after processing them and is forced to set them free in public.

The busing is expected to continue as the number of migrants unlawfully crossing the border remains high.

For the month of February, migrant apprehensions in the San Diego Sector were 31,562, up from 24,709 in January, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics.