Migrants fearful after Tijuana protests
Crowds chanted for them to leave
TIJUANA, Mexico — Many Central American migrants camped in Tijuana after crossing Mexico in a caravan said Monday that a protest over the weekend by residents demanding they leave frightened them and left them even more anxious while they try to get into the United States.
The angry protests have been fed by concerns raised by President Donald Trump’s month-long warnings that criminals and gang members are in the group and even terrorists, though there is no evidence of that.
About 500 people demonstrated in an affluent section of Tijuana on Sunday against the caravan. Dozens of protesters then marched to an outdoor sports complex near downtown where 2,500 migrants are staying, sleeping on dirt fields and under bleachers after arriving at the border city a week ago.
Dulce Alvarado, 28, from Lempira, Honduras, said she was stepping out of a corner grocery near the complex carrying her 2-year-old son when she was surrounded by the demonstrators chanting “Get out!” and “We don’t want you here!”
“I was very scared,” Alvarado said.
A Tijuana police officer saw them in the crowd and helped them get out and behind police tape marking off the block where the sports complex is located. The protest eventually ended peacefully. On Monday, a Mexican holiday, streets were quiet with many businesses near the complex closed.
Tensions have built as nearly 3,000 migrants from the caravan poured into Tijuana in recent days after more than a month on the road — and with many more months likely ahead of them while they seek asylum in the U.S. The federal government estimates the number of migrants could soon swell to 10,000.
U.S. border inspectors are processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego. Asylum seekers register their names in a tattered notebook managed by the migrants themselves that had more than 3,000 names even before the caravan arrived.
For most of this city of 1.6 million, the arrival of thousands of Central Americans is not noticeable. Most migrants stay within a three-block radius of the sports complex that faces the towering metal walls topped with barbed wire at the U.S.-Mexico border.
But many residents fear with the passage of time their presence will take its toll and crime could go up. Since 2016, thousands of Haitians who also tried to get to the U.S. ended up settling here, while at the same time, Tijuana has taken in thousands of Mexicans deported from the United States.
Tijuana also has been struggling with drug violence and some say they do not want the caravan bringing more problems.
Sandra Lucia Montanez, 28, a Tijuana psychologist, said news reports last month of Central Americans storming Mexico’s southern border fed the fears. But, she said, it’s important that Tijuana not forget it is a city of migrants.
“Almost no one here is from Tijuana,” Montanez said. “We have to help the neediest ones. They come from countries with a lot of poverty. Honduras is worse off than Mexico.”
The United States has dramatically increased border security in preparation for the caravan’s arrival.