At least 22 people have been arrested and prosecuted for breaching security at the White House or U.S. Capitol since the beginning of 2014, according to an investigation by the News4 I-Team. The cases include a fast-rising number of White House fence jumpers and people deliberately violating security perimeters on Capitol grounds.

The I-Team’s review reveals the legal system is struggling to prevent the risk of repeat offenders. Almost all of those arrested since 2014 are free from custody, many are undergoing mental health or competency screenings, several have violated court orders to stay away from government buildings, and at least two of them are missing and being sought by law enforcement.

White House Security Breaches Since 2014:

Federal law enforcement agencies do not release official counts or lists of arrests at the White House or Capitol, so the I-Team scoured four years of federal court records to compile an exhaustive list of cases since 2014, some of which were not publicized by authorities. An overwhelming majority of the cases involved men and women who reside far from the metropolitan Washington, D.C., region and made long trips to commit the breaches.

According to former U.S. Secret Service employees, the I-Team’s findings raise concern fence jumpers are spawning copycats and increasing the risk to government officials and tourists who gather along White House and U.S. Capitol grounds.

Former agent Robert Caltabiano said an incendiary political culture and social media are fueling anger and protest.

“Unfortunately, I think we’re going to see more of this,” Caltabiano said. “The vitriol, the fighting of people just going to events.”

“If you look at how people view Congress and the president, I think there’s the angst of people are so fed up with certain things,” he said.

Gunshots

At least two of the incidents since 2014 resulted in gunfire from law enforcement, increasing the risk to tourists, police and workers nearby. Jesse Olivieri of Pennsylvania pleaded guilty to a federal charge five months after he was arrested for pulling a semiautomatic gun near U.S. Secret Service outside the south entrance of the White House. Agents fired and struck Olivieri, who was wounded and served less than five months in jail.

In a March 2016 incident, police arrested Larry Dawson for brandishing an item appearing to be a gun inside the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. U.S. Capitol Police opened fire at Douglas, who was wounded and later pleaded guilty to a charge of assaulting or impeding officers. Visitors, including children, fled and sheltered on Capitol grounds during the gunfire, according to court records.

Repeat Offenders

Several people arrested for breaches since 2014 were repeat offenders, who had violated stay away orders from the court by approaching White House grounds.

Marci Wahl of the state of Washington is facing criminal charges, accused of trying to jump the White House fence three times in one week in March.

Alicia Keppler of South Carolina pleaded guilty to a charge of entering restricted grounds in mid-July. According to the I-Team review of her case, prosecutors accused Keppler of attempting to breach White House security on two consecutive Fourth of July holidays and during the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

Kenneth Kohl, deputy chief of the national security section for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, said federal prosecutors vigorously prosecute breaches.

“We take the cases very seriously,” Kohl said. “If someone jumps the White House fence or attempts to jump the White House fence, were going to prosecute that case."

Out-of-Towners

At least 17 of the 22 cases involved people who lived in states outside the mid-Atlantic.

Jonathan Tran of California traveled across the country before scaling the White House fence. According to court filings, Tran remained undetected on the grounds for several minutes while carrying a backpack. Secret Service officers found and arrested Tran on the South Lawn. He pleaded guilty to a federal charge in July and declined to answer when the I-Team asked him why he breached security. He’s scheduled to be sentenced in September and is free from custody pending the sentencing hearing.

Joseph Caputo of Connecticut traveled to D.C. to jump the White House fence on Thanksgiving Day 2015. He did so wrapped in a U.S. flag while carrying a binder and a rewritten version of the U.S. Constitution, according to his attorneys and court filings. Caputo pleaded guilty to a federal charge in January and avoided prison time, receiving a sentence of supervised parole.

“I had my own intentions,” Caputo told the I-Team in January. “I’ll speak about them at a later date. The main point was the binder.”

Fugitives

The I-Team review shows at least two of the 22 people arrested for breaches are missing and being pursued by authorities.

A D.C. Superior Court judge issued a warrant for Antonio Pierorazio of Pennsylvania, who failed to show for a court hearing in his case. U.S. Capitol Police arrested Pierorazio in July 2015 for ramming his vehicle into a barricade on the south side of the U.S. Capitol complex. A judge had ordered mental health screenings for Pierorazio. According to reports, Pierorazio claimed the FBI had implanted chips in him before the incident.

Jose Fuertes is also a fugitive, according to the I-Team review of court filings. U.S. Secret Service arrested Fuertes in March 2016 for jumping a White House bike rack-style security barrier. The I-Team review showed Fuertes failed to show for an April 2016 hearing. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department is the agency assigned to find the two men. Neither has been located or arrested.

“Our Criminal Apprehension Unit is committed to ensuring these individuals, and any individuals who have outstanding warrants are apprehended so they can answer to the charges that have been brought against them,” a spokeswoman said.

Mental Health

Judges ordered mental health screenings or counseling in 15 of the 22 security breach cases, including several still pending in D.C. federal court. The screenings and mental health care has stalled some of the criminal proceedings, the I-Team found.

Sean Keoughan of Roanoke, Virginia, is still waiting to proceed with his criminal case after a March 2017 arrest by U.S. Secret Service. Keoughan is charged with a federal crime after being accused of driving a stolen truck to a White House checkpoint, claiming to have a bomb in the trunk. He is committed to the custody of the New York Metropolitan Correctional Center for mental evaluations.

Jean-Paul Gamarra is also being held at the New York Metropolitan Correctional Center after his arrest by U.S. Secret Service. The I-Team’s review of court records shows the feds have accused Gamarra of having three run-ins with U.S. Secret Service at the White House. He was arrested in March for leaving a suspicious package with a threatening message by a security fence. He was ordered to return for further mental health care in mid-July.

Hearings are also stalled for Wahl, the Washington state woman accused of making three fence jumping attempts in one week in March.

Jessica Ford of Tennessee is scheduled for a hearing in September. Prosecutors said Ford attempted to scale the fence in May but also violated an order from the court to stay away from the White House in early July. Ford pleaded not guilty and has been ordered to undergo a doctor’s review.

Caltabiano said U.S. Secret Service must prepare for encounters with the mentally ill when guarding the White House. He said mental health concerns raise the risk to officers and the trespassers themselves, because communication is often challenging.

“When the individual is over the fence and they’re running on the grounds of the White House, you don’t have time to decipher whether they’re mentally ill or they have ill intentions of harming the president,” Caltabiano said.

Approximately 25 customers were without water Thursday evening after a water main break in an El Cajon neighborhood.

According to city officials, the water main break is located on Madison Avenue near Orlando Street, between Roselle and Wayne avenues, just east of the Boys and Girls Club.

The main broke around 8 a.m. Thursday.

At this time, Madison Avenue is closed while Helix Water crews make repairs.

Around 25 customers, including the Boys and Girls Club, are without water.

Helix Water is bringing in water trucks to the neighborhood for those impacted by the break.

No other information was available.

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.

California Border Patrol (CBP) arrested two men with a loaded assault rifle for attempting to smuggle five Mexican citizens.

At around 2 a.m. on Wednesday, agents stopped a 19-year-old man driving a Hyundai Santa Fe at a Border Patrol checkpoint off Interstate 8 near Pine Valley, according to CBP.

The man and his 18-year old male passenger, both U.S. citizens, were sent to a secondary inspection after two men were seen lying down in the SUV’s cargo area. The secondary inspection revealed three more passengers in the SUV’s backseat, according to CBP.

During questioning the five Mexican nationals admitted their illegal status, and all seven men were arrested and taken to a Border Patrol station, according to a statement.

Agents also found an AR-15 assault rifle with 19 rounds of ammunition in the SUV’s cargo area after the arrests were made.

The driver and his front seat passenger were charged with human smuggling. The weapons and vehicle were seized by the U.S. Border Patrol.

A California deputy attorney general has been charged in San Diego with possession of child pornography.

Raymond Joseph Liddy was arrested Tuesday. He pleaded not guilty and was released on $100,000 bond, according to a complaint. The attorney general's office said they are aware of the matter and that the 53-year-old Liddy was placed on administrative leave.

According to a complaint filed in federal court, an electronic service provider sent a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in January that a user had uploaded an image that appeared to be child porn.

A month later another provider sent a similar tip to the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The activity was traced to his home in Coronado, stated the complaint.

Liddy is accused of being in possession of about a dozen illegal photos. He was put on home detention and is wearing an ankle device.

Local and federal authorities said they traced the activity to Liddy's home. When they questioned him, Liddy said he downloads sexual images and deletes them, according to the complaint.

He also said he may have forwarded some of the images, and some of them may have been of children, possibly.

They searched his home and uncovered disturbing photos on a computer and thumbdrive of minors engaged in sexual conduct.

Defense Attorney Knut Johnson, who has taken Liddy's case, told NBC 7 that he knows his client is a good person and all his coworkers describe him as an honorable man.

A man who allegedly stabbed his mother 15 times in their Clairemont home pleaded not guilty to murder at his arraignment Thursday. 

Joseph Burks, 30, is accused in the death of his mother, Angela, a 58-year-old science teacher at Otay Ranch High School. A judge set bail at $1 million. 

Burks, a well-known teacher in San Diego's South Bay, had worked at the school since it first opened, Sweetwater Union High School District officials said. She had been a teacher for 35 years. 

Burks was found stabbed inside a home on Mt. Putman Road at 7:16 p.m. Monday evening, San Diego police (SDPD) detectives said. When they arrived, she was bleeding inside the house. 

Her son called 911, saying he stabbed his mother after a fight, prosecutors said. 

Police arrived to find the teacher dead inside their home, said Deputy District Attorney Makenzie Harvey. 

"Very brutal, the number of stab wounds makes it particularly brutal," Harvey said. "That some one living with his mother would kill her in such a brutal way."

If convicted, Burks faces 25 years to life in prison. 

Half a dozen parks in San Diego County will close for the month August due to extreme heat.

The closures, which take place most years as a safety precaution, were announced by the county Thursday.

During the closures, crews from the Department of Parks and Recreation will also work on trail restoration and maintenance.

The following parks will be closed between Aug. 1 through Aug. 31:

• El Capitan Reserve near Lakeside
• Hellhole Canyon Preserve in Valley Center
• Mt. Grower Preserve near Ramona
• Wilderness Gardens in Pala

It is no secret the Los Angeles Chargers have been looking for a young quarterback throughout the off season. The team worked out a number of candidates before the NFL draft in April 2017. The latest candidate was Robert Griffin III who worked out with the Bolts on Tuesday July 25. However, one day later the Chargers finalized a trade with the Buffalo Bills for quarterback Cardale Jones in exchange for a late round conditional pick in a later draft.

The Bills drafted Jones in the fourth round in 2016 from of Ohio State University, where he played with Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa. In 2014, Jones was the third quarterback in the depth chart, but both quarterbacks got hurt before the Big-10 championship versus Michigan. The 24 year old led the Buckeyes to a National Championship victory. After the season, Jones decided to continue his collegiate run, but didn’t have the same kind of success.

Last season Jones played under then interim head coach for the Buffalo Bills, Anthony Lynn. As the new Chargers head coach, Lynn has nothing but praise for Jones.

“Cardale is a good young talent, and he’s going to add competition behind Philip Rivers,” Lynn said, via Chargers.com.

Lynn went on to say, “He’s the type of quarterback you want waiting on the runway. He’s going to have the opportunity to come on the field and compete. Cardale is someone we think can be developed.”

Bolts quarterback Philip Rivers is 36 years old, which means father time can catch up to him at any point. For now, the Chargers do not seem to have a replacement ready. Rivers has started every game for the past 11 seasons, but no player is indestructible.

Jones will have a good opportunity to learn under a pro bowl quarterback like Rivers. He will have to compete with Kellen Clemens, Mike Bercovici, and Eli Jenkins for the backup spot. It is more than likely that Coach Lynn will only keep two quarterbacks. Jones should be the favorite behind Rivers because Lynn, who also raved about his athleticism, intelligence, and arm strength, has coached him before.

If Jones takes advantage of being under his former coach and becomes a leader at the quarterback position, then he could be the heir apparent to Rivers. The battle between Jones and Clemens will start Sunday July 30 at training camp in Carson. One thing is certain; Lynn understands he needs to find a backup quarterback before it’s too late.

The San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) is moving forwarding with the $28.6 million Milestone Pipeline Relining project.

The Board of Directors approved the project Thursday to rehabilitate more than four-miles of a pipeline between Lake Murray and Sweetwater Reservoir.

"Pipeline relining is an important and often overlooked program that’s extending the life and reliability of the system we depend on every day to deliver water to our taps when we need it," said Mark Muir, chair of the Water Authority Board.

According to the SDCWA, the project is part of its program to reline about 82-miles of prestressed concrete cylinder pipeline with steel liners. The process costs 40 to 50 percent less than excavating the entire pipeline.

SDCWA will work with local water agencies to ensure water services for customers is not interrupted. 

Just a little more than two weeks after 5-year-old Ivan Hernandez was killed in an accident while crossing the street in Vista, his mother is pleading with the city to add crosswalks in the area.

Liliana Huaracha, 31, was joined by family, friends, and neighbors Thursday to remember Ivan. The group prayed for peace and for the single-mother of four children.

"Getting closer to God," said Huaracha. "That’s the only thing that’s getting me, giving me a little more peace."

Huaracha was walking down the road to the barber shop to get a haircut with her children on July 7. 

Her 16-year brother was the first to cross the busy road of Bobier Drive.

She said her 3-year-old broke loose from her grip and ran toward the flower beds near their apartment complex. Huaracha said she told Ivan to stay where he was and ran after her 3-year-old.

But in two seconds her life changed, she said. Ivan was struck and killed by a car.

According to the San Diego COunty Sheriff's Department, the incident was ruled as an accident.

"I think about him every day," said Huaracha.

Thursday, the community came together and organized a fundraiser at Glow Zone. The co-owner of the family challenge arena, Dante Brooks, invited the community to help the family.

"I couldn't imagine the pain that they're going through," said Brooks, whose son went to daycare with Ivan. "We are donating ten percent of today's proceeds back to Ivans' family."

Huaracha said she is thankful for the community’s help.

"I do have a good community that has been supporting me, economically and spiritually," she said.

But she added it's not enough and that she wants to see change. She said she hopes the city will implement traffic lights, crosswalks, and take steps to make the area safer.

In a statement by City of Vista spokesperson, Andrea McCullough said:

"Due to tremendous safety concerns, the City of Vista would not place an uncontrolled crosswalk across a major arterial road. Crosswalks…are placed at controlled intersections (with traffic signals) for safety purposes."

The father of a 15-year-old who fought off a man during an attempted kidnapping in Encinitas Wednesday has a warning for other parents. 

"Be aware. If you have a daughter like this is for real. These guys are coming into our neighborhood trying to snatch our kids," the victim’s father Rick Devoe said.

She was waxing her surfboard in her driveway around 5:30 p.m. in the 1600 block of Neptune Avenue when a man came up to her from behind and pinned her to the ground, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

The suspect tried to drag her toward a pickup truck, parked along Grandview Street, where another man was lurking inside, deputies said.

Devoe told NBC 7, the incident is a parent's nightmare. He said he was 200 miles away when he got the call from his daughter about the attack.

They had to get home by boat.

"My wife and I just felt so helpless. We had to get here by a boat in the middle of the night. It was really rough. We couldn't get here any faster," Devoe said.

Deputies released a composite sketch of one of the suspects Thursday.

"They didn't look like surfers. Something just did not sit right," said witness Chris Georggin said.

The attempted kidnapping happened in Georggin's driveway. As he was leaving the house before the attack, Georggin saw the accomplice and helped police compose the sketch.

He said the victim was a longtime friend.

"Everybody loves her. She is the sweetest, most caring person in the entire world," Georggin said.

"She knows what to look for. She knows how to get out of that situation. She fights. She is [a] full blown athlete," Devoe said.

NBC 7 showed the composite sketch to neighbors and one woman said she thought she might have recognized the face.

Meanwhile, Devoe said he has a warning.

"We just have to send a message that we are not going to stand for this," Devoe said.

Deputies said the attempted kidnapping appears to be an isolated incident, though similar incidents with someone fitting the description have been reported.

The suspect who grabbed the victim appeared to be 5-feet 10-inches tall with a skinny build. He looked about 20 to 30-years-old and was wearing board shorts.

The man waiting in the pickup truck also appeared to be between 20 to 30-years-old, about 5-feet 11-inches tall with a medium build. The victim said he had brown hair and a long brown beard.

The two men left in a blue, older model pickup truck with a lifted suspension, metals racks, and possibly an extended cab.

Anyone with information about this case can call Crime Stoppers at (888)580-8477. If information helps lead to a felony arrest, you could be eligible for a $1,000 reward.

The GOP took a hard blow early Friday when its Health Care Freedom Act, dubbed the "skinny repeal" of "Obamacare," failed to pass in the Senate in a late-night 49–51 vote.

Republican Sens. John McCain, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins crossed party lines to cast key votes to defeat the measure, with McCain's move drawing cheers from the Democrats on the Senate floor.

As news of the bill's failure spread, social media erupted with reactions from Washington.

President Donald Trump was not happy with the results, tweeting about 2:30 a.m. ET, "3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!"

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono earlier Thursday became emotional while talking about the bill. Before mentioning her own battle with cancer, she talked about having lost a young sister to pneumonia in Japan then fearing for her mother's health while growing up without health coverage in the U.S. 

"Where is your compassion?" said Hirono, who was diagnosed with kidney cancer in May. "Where is the care that you showed me when I was diagnosed with my illness. I find it hard to believe that we can sit here and vote on a bill that is going to hurt millions and millions of people in our country. We are better than that."

Read how Hirono and other Democratic lawmakers responded to their victory.

San Diego firefighters have just rescued a person trapped in a car in Sorrento Valley.

San Diego Police say Friday around 4:50 a.m. a car rolled about 20 feet off the road at Mira Mesa Boulevard and Scranton Road. 

The extend of the driver's injuries are unknown. 

Officers have blocked some westbound lanes of Mira Mesa Boulevard.  

No other information was available.

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.

A semi-truck and minivan crashed in the westbound lanes of Interstate-8 in La Mesa early Friday morning. 

According to the California Highway Patrol, other cars were also involved in the crash that happened just before 5 a.m. near La Mesa Boulevard. 

The CHP said everyone appeared to be out of their vehicles. 

All lanes of westbound I-8 have reopened to traffic.  

No other information was available.

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.

A set of newborn twins and their 1-year-old sister were orphaned after a series of tragic events claimed the life of their father and then their mother just days later.

The children’s 26-year-old father, Jevaughn Suckoo, was fatally shot on July 11 at his Florida home in a gated community in West Palm Beach, according to a Palm Beach Post database. Police ruled Suckoo’s death a homicide.

Three days later, Suckoo’s pregnant girlfriend, Stephanie Caceres, gave birth to the couple’s twin boy and girl. According to Caceres’ family, she developed an infection from the C-section and was admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit. She died 10 days later, the same day Suckoo's family laid him to rest. 

"She always told me that she had a dream of taking care of me because I have diabetes. And she always told me 'mom I'm going to take care of you,' not knowing that I'm going to be taking care of her kids," Stephanie's mother, Irma Meza, said in an interview in Spanish with NBC affiliate WPTV.

The couple also leave behind their 1-year-old daughter Kailanie. The family says that the children’s grandparents will now take custody and raise all three of their grandchildren.

"We're just devastated," Joni Saunders, Suckoo's aunt told WPTV. "They were looking forward to the twins coming. Then tragedy, a double whammy hit. Now we're just trying figure out how to move forward."

The couple’s family set up a gofundme page in the children’s names in effort to raise money for health care, education and support.

Pala Casino Spa & Resort unveiled plans for a $170 million expansion and renovation of its property.

The work, announced July 27, will include a new, 349-room hotel tower, bringing the property to 854 rooms in total. The business also plans new hotel suites, as well as multiple swimming pools replacing its single pool.

The project will expand the casino area 13 percent to 102,000 square feet. The venue plans to offer 2,500 slot and video machines — up from the current 2,000 — as well as 88 table games.

Pala plans to completely remodel its restaurant area. Also planned are a complete refresh of the casino and a complete refresh of the existing hotel tower.

Construction is expected to begin in October and wrap up in May 2019.

San Francisco-based Level 10 Construction will oversee renovation and expansion. The architect is Klai Juba Wald of Las Vegas, assisted by Marks Architects of San Diego.

Pala, on the reservation of the Pala Band of Mission Indians, is one of several casinos in the inland portion of North County. Nearby properties on the Pechanga and Rincon Indian reservations have also expanded recently. The businesses draw visitors from all of Southern California and beyond.

“Our ability to exponentially expand and refresh Pala Casino Spa & Resort is a true testament to, not only the growth of Pala but also to the thriving economy and the continued strength of the gaming industry in California,” said Robert Smith, chairman of the Pala Band, in a prepared statement. Smith called the new expansion “a significant milestone for our tribe.”

A 77-year-old man has died after being stung hundreds of times by a swarm of Africanized bees while on a walk in his high desert neighborhood, a relative said Thursday.

The victim, identified by his nephew only as Larry, was walking Monday near his home in Oak Hills, a desert community near Hesperia, when the bees, known colloquially as "killer bees," attacked. He was found by his nephew, who pulled him to safety inside the home and called paramedics before beginning to pull hundreds of stingers out of Larry's skin.

"He's been stung so many times, and there was just a cloud of bees around him and crawling all over him and stinging him," the nephew told NBC4 on Tuesday.

Larry was airlifted to Loma Linda University Medical Center, where he was treated for hundreds of bee stings.

According to doctors, bee stings can be fatal if the victim is allergic and does not seek immediate treatment.

It’s been exactly one year since a beloved San Diego police officer was gunned down and killed while on duty and, this weekend, his community will remember him with a special Crossfit workout.

Officers from the San Diego Police Department (SDPD), as well as community members, will honor the memory of Jonathan “JD” De Guzman, 43, by partaking in the “GS 24 Memorial WOD Partner Workout” at several Crossfit gyms in San Diego County.

“GS 24” was De Guzman’s radio call sign. He was a SWAT officer and a member of the SDPD’s Gang Suppression Team, known for his courage and dedication to protecting and serving San Diego.

De Guzman and his partner, SDPD Officer Wade Irwin, were shot while on duty on July 28, 2016, on Acacia Grove Way in San Diego's Southcrest community.

The pair had stopped suspect Jesse Michael Gomez, 56, and asked if he lived in the area. Gomez opened fire at point-blank range, striking both officers.

Irwin was hit in the throat; De Guzman was hit with multiple bullets. The attack happened so quickly, prosecutors said De Guzman never even had a chance to draw his service weapon.

De Guzman died in the attack. Irwin survived but was seriously injured. Irwin returned to work June of this year.

De Guzman was a 16-year veteran of the SDPD, loved by his colleagues and family. In 2003, the officer survived a stabbing while on duty and was awarded a Purple Heart by the department for his valor.

SDPD Chief Shelley Zimmerman said that even after that incident, De Guzman eagerly returned to the force, his passion for protecting the public never wavering.

Since his killing, De Guzman has been memorialized in many ways around San Diego. This past March, the U.S. Post Office in the Eastlake community of Chula Vista, California, was named in honor of the fallen officer.

Saturday's workout sessions dedicated to De Guzman will take place at the following gyms, at these times:

• 8 a.m. at Alpine Ranch Crossfit in Alpine (5001 Willows Rd., #J105)
• 9 a.m. at Crossfit Pride in Santee (8630 Argent St.)
• 9 a.m. at Crossfit 858 in Miramar (7630 Miramar Rd., #2500)
• 9:30 a.m. at Boombox Crossfit SD (5745 Kearny Villa Rd., #113)

There will be boxes set up at the events to raise funds for the Police Officers Association’s Widows and Orphans Fund. The program helps provide monetary support to the families of fallen officers, or officers faced with the sudden loss of a spouse or child.

Three thousand, seven hundred miles from home, a Honduran couple and their 4-year-old son were about to cross into Canada through upstate New York.

The family planned to seek asylum there. U.S. Border Patrol agents found them first.

The husband was sent to the Buffalo Federal Detention Center. The wife and child were taken to the Berks County Residential Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania.

Mother and son spent the next 140 days at the county-run, federally-funded prison before being released July 27.

The father was also released and the family is on their way to Florida to live while continuing to fight for asylum, according to one of their pro bono attorneys, Bridget Cambria.

A worse fate befell 10 other mothers and their children at Berks. After spending more than two years at the former nursing home 80 miles west of Philadelphia, they all were deported in May.

“That was May 11, the worst day of our lives,” Cambria’s colleague, attorney Carol Anne Donohoe, said of the previously unreported removals of nine of the families. One mother and her child were first deported May 3.

The varied outcomes for asylum seekers, and the incredible amounts of time they can spend at Berks, is telling about a place critics describe as child immigrant purgatory. It’s the only facility of its kind in the country where parents and children can be held for an indefinite time.

“There’s a 16-year-old, Victor. He’s spent two years behind these walls. These stupid walls are all he knows,” Cambria said. “The whole thing is torture. You’re contained inside this building. They’ll say, ‘We see the same walls. All day, every day.’”

Advocates call the center a humane approach to detaining immigrants in the midst of a labyrinthine process for asylum. Federal officials granted NBC10 a tour of the facility, though the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) administrator was not available for an interview. ICE also did not allow a reporter to talk with detainees or use a camera.

“People are treated rather well,” said Kevin Barnhardt, one of three locally-elected county commissioners. “It’s not my fault they are there for a longer period of time because they filed appeals to their immigration.”

Since 2011, the county has made nearly $7 million from operating the detention center for ICE, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

“My view is the county works in cooperation with the federal government. They’re performing an important function,” another county commissioner, Mark Scott, said. “I’m more than happy to provide some assistance to them.”

‘They Won the Worst Lottery Ever’

When the 10 recently deported women crossed into Texas over two years ago, they claimed to be escaping sexual abuse, violence and possibly death back in their Central American countries. They came from an area known as the Northern Triangle, a trio of countries with the highest murder rates in the world.

No one is able to say with certainty why the immigration and judicial systems funneled them, in particular, to Berks and left them in legal limbo as hundreds of other immigrant men, women and children came and went.

“It’s the luck of the draw to end up in detention,” Cambria said. “They won the worst lottery ever.”

They’re known collectively as the Castro mothers, named for the court case: Castro v. Department of Homeland Security. The Supreme Court in April declined to hear their appeal, which challenged a lower court ruling denying the families further judicial relief from ICE expedited removal orders.

Cambria, Donohoe and a fellow attorney, Jacquelyn Kline, continued to argue that the mothers and children be freed and granted asylum because many of the children had already received Special Immigrant Juvenile (SIJ) status.

“The purpose of the SIJ program is to help foreign children in the United States who have been abused, abandoned or neglected,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Despite that, on May 3, the first mother and child were deported to Honduras. Cambria and Kline said they heard about their clients’ removals while in court for another case. That deportation initially garnered national attention after U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., unleashed a flurry of tweets calling unsuccessfully for the reversal of ICE’s removal order.

Eight days later, the sweeping removal of the nine other mothers, and their children, invoked no publicity.

They and thousands of other men, women and children have fled El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras in the last decade, an exodus spurred on by drug wars between murderous gangs like MS-13.

Honduras and El Salvador have the two highest murder rates in the world, at 75 per 100,000 and 62 per 100,000, respectively, according to 2014 figures from the World Bank. Guatemala has the seventh highest rate at 32 per 100,000.

The murder rate for the United States is 3.9 per 100,000, according to the most recent data available.

In the last five years, a tiny fraction of asylum requests from those three countries have been granted, according to statistics provided by the U.S. Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review.

Federal Money for County Coffers

The Berks County facility is one of only three Immigration and Customs Enforcement family detention centers. The other two are in Texas, and those facilities are not allowed to detain immigrants for more than 20 days. (A recent Associated Press report, however, found that the limit may be not adhered to by authorities.)

Berks is not privately run, but it does make a tidy profit for the county — more than $1 million in 2016.

Kevin Barnhardt, the county commissioner, said the profit comes from renting office space inside the building to ICE. That rental income totaled $1.08 million last year, though ICE’s regional deputy director Josh Reed said during a recent tour of the facility that only a handful of agents operated out of the building.

“We make money from renting floor space,” Barnhardt said. “We do not make profit on the families.”

The county’s annual financial report is less definitive, indicating that the center had an operating income of $1,097,553 in 2016, which factored into what is described as a “total net position” of $6.8 million since its 2011 opening as an immigrant family detention center. Both commissioners interviewed said annual profits from the facility go into the county’s general fund.

Up to 96 immigrant men, women and children can be held at any time. During the walkthrough in late July, Reed said about 67 people were held at that time, but that the number fluctuates. For decades, the building housed a nursing home. When the county decided to build a new one, Scott said they found ICE eager to utilize the space.

Berks County previously held illegal immigrants at another county detention facility in a partnership with ICE, so the relationship was already established, Scott said.

“Many years ago, the county had some criminal aliens who were detained and mixed in the prison population,” he said. “We were dealing with adult males back then. I think what happened is the feds realized they had this issue with people with small children.”

Accounts differ greatly of the living conditions inside the center. A county staff of 65 operate and manage the facility. The attorneys for the detainees say a recent influx of male parents with children has created an unsettling environment.

“There are examples of a father and his daughter sharing a room with mothers and their children,” Cambria said. “Where else is that allowed?”

The building’s first floor includes a visitation area for phone calls and meetings with attorneys, a large communal space with eight computers called the Program Floor, an indoor playroom for small children and an exit to a rear playground, picnic area and small sports field. There is also a wing with four classrooms.

The second-floor has a cafeteria and another common area separating two wings of sleeping quarters. Each wing has shared bathrooms with showers. A guard watched over one while a short line formed. A corridor leads to a medical wing.

Each bedroom consists of six to eight beds, with some rooms occupied by four adults and four children, others by three and three. Locker-style closets served as storage space.

Reed said the facility makes every effort to keep those detained there in comfortable conditions. He touted classrooms run by the Berks County Intermediate Unit as providing children with access to teachers that is “a little more one-on-one here than in public schools.”

The center’s contract with the county Intermediate Unit has skyrocketed since 2011. The BCIU is now paid $78,000 a month for education services, according to vendor contracts obtained through a Right-To-Know request.

BCIU executive director Jill Hackman did not return a message seeking comment.

Three Lawyers Who Won't 'Shut Up'

The Castro case still looms over the center. Four mothers and their children, who were also plaintiffs, are still there. They remain in court appeals for the right to stay in the country.

Their collective story has brought attention to a federal center tucked amid the foothills of the Appalachian Trail.

State support has waned under Gov. Tom Wolf, who wants the federal government to look at alternatives for housing asylum seekers. He allowed the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services to consider revoking the center’s license as a “child residential facility.”

A DHS spokeswoman said a departmental review remains under consideration.

Wolf made his preference clear in May.

“Gov. Wolf has repeatedly urged the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security to consider community-based options to serve these families whenever possible,” the governor’s spokesman J.J. Abbott said at the time. “He believes that the center should no longer detain these families and his administration continues to pursue the revocation of their state license.”

Mark Scott, the county commissioner, said he could not discuss the licensing issues, but said the state inspects the facility frequently. Kevin Barnhardt, another commissioner, said Berks has been inspected 30 times already in 2017.

"We understand there are people who have an ax to grind and want open borders. But in our case, it’s not a political issue," Scott said. "We’ve had people who objected to the center. We gave them a tour and they shut up."

That's not the case for the three pro bono lawyers Cambria, Donohoe and Kline. They continue almost daily treks from their Reading office to meet with detainees.

They are in near constant communication with one asylum seeker or another. Their detestation for Berks is evident in the numerous stories they pass along from clients.

The psychologist who says long-term detainees have stabilized.

“They come fleeing from violence and abuse in their home countries. They have all these traumas on their journey here,” Kline said. “Now, they’re re-traumatized.”

The staff counselors always watching.

“We’ve had one of our clients who was told she smiled too much, and she was written up for it,” Cambria said.

The coming of age inside a federal detention center.

“How can we live in a country where we can accept that a child is being detained?” Donohoe said. “It’s absurd.”

Police and bomb squad officials are investigating a suspicious device discovered near Kensington Friday morning.

San Diego police responded to reports of a suspicious device at Wesleyan Place and South Hempstead Circle around 9:40 a.m.

Once SDPD officers arrived at the scene, they evaluated the object and determined the device to be suspicious, possibly containing munitions.

Bomb Squad officials are examining the device. No other information was immediately available.

Please refresh this page for updates on this story. Details may change as more information becomes available.

A San Diego woman wounded in a shark attack three months ago is sharing her story, describing what it was like to be grabbed by a shark off San Onofre State Beach.

Leeanne Ericson was swimming in the ocean around dusk on April 29 when suddenly, her life changed forever. 

On Friday, Ericson and her boyfriend, Dusty described the moment she was pulled under the surface of the water by a large shark. 

"I felt it grab me and pull me down," Ericson told Good Morning America. "I just remember thinking about my kids and him and then trying to push the shark off of me."

The shark, estimated at 10 feet in length, ripped through the back of Ericson’s leg, tearing out all the muscle from her knee to her hip and just missing her major arteries.

Ericson then describes her immediate decision to fight.

"I just started digging," she said. "I felt like I was digging out a cup of Jello."

They can only guess that she was touching the shark's eye, she said. 

She escaped with her life but suffered significant injuries and tremendous blood loss. Emergency crews airlifted her to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla.

There, two dozen medical specialists cared for her in the weeks following the attack. She underwent numerous surgeries and is now left with thousands of dollars in medical fees, despite having insurance she said.

Last month, Ericson wrote about her recovery on an online fundraising page established by her family to help cover her medical expenses. She talked about wanting to get better so she could be reunited with her children.

Ericson's mother, Christine McKnerney-Leidle also shared an update that Ericson had started walking, taking 40 steps in the hospital.

Ericson works for a local credit union, Pacific Marine Credit Union. The company has opened an account to collect donations to help the victim in her recovery. Donations can be made at any Pacific Marine Credit Union branch, or by mail. Checks can be made payable to:

“Support Leeanne”
C/O Pacific Marine Credit Union
1278 Rocky Point Drive
Oceanside, CA 92056

Her family also continues to run this GoFundMe page, which as of Friday, had raised more than $99,000.

Last year, there were an estimated 59 shark attacks across the U.S., according to data collected by scientists at the University of Florida.

The attack that changed Ericson's life took place at San Onofre State Beach, located off Interstate 5 at Basilone Road, about 3 miles south of San Clemente, California, and 58 miles north of downtown San Diego.

According to investigators, Ericson was camping with her boyfriend when the couple decided to go in the water. Ericson swam while her boyfriend surfed next to her at a favorite spot at the beach.

The victim’s mother said the couple saw a seal in the water and Ericson’s boyfriend turned to swim out to a wave. Just then, Ericson disappeared from the water’s surface.

The beach was closed to the public for several days following the shark attack. It reopened, but throughout May authorities issued warnings at the beach after reported shark sightings near the same area where Ericson had been attacked.