The more than 350 migrants who maintained a camp a few meters from the border port of San Ysidro, in the Mexican city of Tijuana, on the border with the United States, were relocated on Saturday by the government and migration authorities in various shelters in the city.
The constant arrival of migrants at the border and at the camp seeking humanitarian asylum in the United States was becoming a coordination problem with the authorities.
For this reason, government and immigration personnel carried out convincing efforts to give migrants shelter in spaces where they would have better care and security, under the commitment to respect their places of entry into the United States.
Health problems
Enrique Lucero Vázquez, municipal director of Attention to Migrants in Tijuana, told EFE that the exponential growth of the camp was a wake-up call, so it was necessary to establish joint actions so as not to let it become a bigger problem.
“Of 30 people on Monday, there were already 348 on Friday, including almost 100 children, and a health problem was already being created, in addition to the fact that they were obstructing two pedestrian access roads for people who cross daily into the United States, so the decision was made to relocate them,” he said.
He added that they explained to the migrants the reasons why the relocation would be carried out, in addition to a census per family and per person with the commitment to respect the place of entry for their appointments, which had previously generated the migrants themselves.
Around 140 people were directed to a government shelter set up in a sports unit, some 9 miles from the border, and the rest went to various hotels in the city, where they will wait for their calls.
Migrants directed to CBP
The official stressed that the migrants created a list that is in the hands of personnel from the National Institute of Migration (INM), with which they will be carrying out the process in an orderly manner and in coordination with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. ) from the United States.
He also said that despite the fact that in this case there was a favorable response from migrants, he knows that the situation “can be repeated at any time, since there is a very significant backlog of migrants.”
They seek safety for their children
Cinthya Guadalupe Fonseca García, originally from the Mexican state of Michoacán, was one of the migrants who, along with her two children, spent three days in the camp, waiting for the opportunity to enter and obtain asylum, since they come from a very difficult situation. violent in her home community.
“I came here because they shot at my house and threatened to kill me, I didn’t want anything to happen to my children,” she told EFE.
The woman agreed that they should be relocated to the shelter where they are now because the most fundamental thing for her was to protect the safety and integrity of her children, in addition to the fact that chaos was already being generated among the migrants due to the order of the line.
“We were in line and many people from other countries arrived who were getting in just because they wanted to, they didn’t want to get in line, so we didn’t want them to get in because, well, we’re all there out of necessity and since we didn’t let them, it became a mess. “, he pointed.
Now the almost 350 migrants are waiting for the calls made by the CBP, an institution that daily allows access to between five and eight people.
The camp reflects what the border is experiencing three weeks after the end of Title 42 in the United States, a measure adopted by Donald Trump and later continued by President Joe Biden to expel migrants immediately on the grounds of the covid-19 pandemic. 19.
Until now, the northern border of Mexico has remained relatively calm with the constant arrival of migrants, shelters at full capacity, and just this arrival of foreigners at the border line between the two countries.
After the end of Title 42, the United States introduced Title 8 and new restrictions on applying for asylum.
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