Fourth wave of Central Americans hits Tijuana
TIJUANA, Mexico — Piles of blankets, mattresses, backpacks, tents, toys and baby strollers covered the grounds of a municipal sports complex on Thursday, where hundreds of Central Americans have sought shelter after a month on the road to reach the U.S. border.
State officials said that 1,750 Central Americans had arrived in Tijuana since Sunday, and they are bracing for more as caravans continue to move north through Mexico. The largest group, numbering about 800, arrived on Thursday, many making their way to the Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez yards from the U.S. border fence in the city’s Zona Norte,
State and Tijuana municipal authorities said they were making space for 1,000 at the city-operated facility, which opened its doors to the migrants late Wednesday, and could expand to accommodate as many as 3,000 should the need arise. They are demanding financial support from Mexico’s federal government — about $4 million — but by the afternoon had yet to receive a response.
“The resources that we’ve assigned to this won’t last for more than ten days,” said Francisco Rueda Gomez, Baja California’s secretary-general, during an afternoon tour of the facility.
But the Central Americans are expected to be in the city for far longer. Many say they want to apply for asylum in the United States, but more than 2,800 people have already signed up on an informal waiting list maintained by the migrants themselves to approach U.S. authorities at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. Rueda expects that the newly arrived caravan members could be in the city for as long as four months while they await their turn.
The situation remains fluid: another 9,000 Central Americans are making their way north through Mexico in caravans, Rueda said, though state officials are uncertain how many will end up in Baja California.
On Thursday morning, Nohelia Maradiaga, 37, of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, was among more than 100 people lining up to enter the stadium with her husband Emerson Linares and and their two daughters. “It’s to give them a better life, there’s no life down there,” said Linares, a 34-year-old construction worker.
They are determined to reach the United States, they said, and plan to apply for asylum, “because it’s safer there,” said his wife.
Like others interviewed, they said they had heard of the caravan on the news back home.
On Thursday afternoon, the stadium was filled with activity. Children played on the jungle gym, teenagers kicked a ball on a concrete court. Families lay together on blankets laid beneath a large awning. State health officials stepped through the gymnasium, covered with mattresses and migrants’ belongings.
Outside, people came by with donations of food and clothes. “When you’ve suffered hunger, you understand what they’re going through,” said Jorge Quiroz, a merchant who dropped off a dozen boxes of pizza.