On a blustery morning last month, volunteer Adriana Jasso raised the flaps to a tent propped up against the massive steel bars of the fence that straddles this stretch of the US-Mexico border. On her side, plastic tables were piled with apples, packets of hot chocolate, mylar blankets and stacks of ponchos – supplies waiting for hungry and tired migrants who had travelled for weeks, or even months, to reach California.

On the other side, visible through the gaps in the towering barrier, a group of more than 100 people – from countries including Ecuador, Colombia, China and Rwanda – huddled together, waiting to be let through on to US soil. This border point south of San Diego is now one of the busiest along the entire US-Mexico frontier, which stretches around 1,950 miles (3,140km) from here to eastern Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.

A record surge of illegal border crossings in recent years has fuelled the debate over immigration and border security, emerging as a key voter concern ahead of the US presidential election in November. While the border crisis has mostly centred on Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott has waged a fight with President Joe Biden over his immigration policies, recent figures show the geography of the US migration problem is shifting west to border states like Arizona and California.

In San Ysidro, some 16 miles south of wealthy San Diego, crossings were up 85% in February from the previous year compared with Texas, which saw illegal entries dip during the same period. The BBC’s US partner CBS reported that in January, the border crossing in Del Rio, Texas, recorded a few hundred apprehensions a day – compared to 2,300 daily migrant crossings in December.

The migrant flow shift is due in part to the Texas governor’s clampdown on illegal migration and Mexican authorities tightening security across the border as well.

The sheer number of people arriving has overwhelmed resources in the San Diego area; after migrants are apprehended and processed at a facility near the border, local officials told the BBC that up to 1,000 people a day are being released at city train and bus stops.

Just after 8am, Border Patrol agents arrived and opened the gate to begin intake on the strip of land where migrants have been waiting. Men are allowed only one layer of clothing, women and children two; they line up and pull off jackets and shoelaces (which are not allowed at the processing centre due to safety concerns), packing them into plastic bags or backpacks. From there, they file on to buses and head to a processing centre, where they are registered and can file a claim for asylum. The vast majority are heading to towns and cities across the US where they have family, friends and networks.

The influx of migrants scattered across the country has strained communities, frustrating local officials and placing immigration at the top of the political agenda. A Wall Street Journal poll released in March ranked immigration among the top two issues for registered voters in seven battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. At least 72% of those voters across the seven states said the country’s immigration policy and border security were heading in the wrong direction, according to the survey.

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