More protests as Southern California town expects new immigrant transfers

On a holiday marking the birth of a nation of immigrants, protesters and counterprotesters began a new round of angry demonstrations Friday in a California town that was scheduled to receive new busloads of migrants arrested for entering the country illegally, CNN reported.

The small Southern California city of Murrieta, named after a Spaniard whose family set up a sheep ranch there in 1873, is now a national flashpoint in the U.S. immigration crisis: Protesters are denouncing the federal transfer of detained migrants to their town for processing at a local U.S. Border Patrol office.

Demonstrators successfully blockaded busloads from entering the town earlier this week.

A second convoy of federal buses carrying migrants to a U.S. Border Patrol station in Murrieta was expected Friday, and Murrieta resident Jason Woolley joined protesters to express his outrage about illegal border crossings. A surge of undocumented Central American immigrants has created a federal crisis, and some of them are supposed to be processed in Murrieta.

"There's a right way and a wrong way to come into this country. If you are going to come in the wrong way, we're not going to stand for it. That's just how it is," Woolley said. "There (are) thousands and millions of other people who've done it the right way. But for people to just come in here and ask for a free handout, that's my money."

Erica Suarez of Long Beach defended the immigrants' rights to due process -- and noted how the United States was built by immigrants.

"It's not a us versus we situation. It's a we. It's everybody together," said Suarez, who described herself as an undocumented student.

Police arrested at least one protester Friday morning. No further details were immediately available.