Tijuana migrant shelters are pushed to limit
Nonprofits struggle as Mexico cuts off funds, Trump denies asylum to all those at border.
Nonprofits struggle as Mexico cuts off funding and Trump denies asylum to foreigners at the border.
TIJUANA — Shelter directors in Tijuana say they are struggling to keep up with an overwhelming need after the Mexican federal government cut off funding for immigrants and the Trump administration implemented Monday a virtual ban on all foreigners filing for asylum in the United States.
The roughly 25 shelters in Tijuana are stretched to the limit with scarce resources in a situation that is tipping toward disaster, according to shelter directors. Nearly all are at full capacity or sheltering more people than their official capacity.
The National Institute of Migration for Mexico said last week there were about 9,854 U.S. asylum seekers waiting in Baja California for their U.S. immigration proceedings.
Pastor Albert Rivera of the Agape Mision Mundial in Tijuana said Mexican immigration aid workers asked him to shelter an additional 105 migrants during the last three days. His shelter can hold a total of 350 people when they set up an additional outside tent for emergency shelter.
He said migrants are being returned more quickly after the Trump administration moved to essentially end asylum for any migrant who arrives at the U.S.-Mexico border, an enormous shift in U.S. immigration policy that could block hundreds of thousands of people from seeking protection in the U.S.
Many nonprofits are buckling under the new strain after months of assisting retornados — asylum seekers, mostly from Central America, who are sent back to Mexico while they await an outcome in their U.S. immigration proceedings under a policy known as Migrant Protection Protocols that went into effect in January.
Meanwhile, the Mexican government has cut off funding streams that typically benefit migrant shelters in Tijuana, at the moment when they need it the most.
Rivera said previous administrations in the Mexican federal government gave money for migrant aid to the state and the city of Tijuana. In the past, shelters could apply for those funds by petitioning the city and state for assistance, but now that funding stream has been cut off by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador amid a crisis.
“Now, the federal government, the brand new one, cut everything off. There is no federal government funding for the city. There is no federal government help for the immigrants,” Rivera said.
During a June 17 news conference, Lopez Obrador said the federal government would begin operating migrant shelters. He promised to open shelters in the near future and accused migrant aid nonprofit organizations of misappropriating public money. The money was cut off in February and it ran out completely in June.
“There are cases that can be proven of money being given to organizations to benefit migrants and it didn’t go to migrants,” said Lopez Obrador, who was elected on the campaign promise of respecting the human rights of immigrants.
So far, the Mexican government has not opened any shelters in Tijuana, even though the existing official migrant shelters in the sprawling border city are now overflowing. Shelter directors say some migrant women and children are sleeping on the streets.
A federal delegate said Tuesday the administration of Lopez Obrador is exploring opening a federally run shelter with 3,000 beds next week.
Rivera said he begins his day at the Agape shelter at 8 a.m. and doesn’t leave most days until at least 10 p.m.
He said he works closely with dozens of government agencies such as Grupo Beta, a service provided by the National Institute of Migration for Mexico that provides aid to migrants.
“I’m balancing. I’m trying to balance,” Rivera said. “This is a passion for me. Every day is not routine. Every day brings a brand-new drama and a brand-new experience, and you get to learn about the very, very difficult problems we have in our world.”
Rivera said his shelter is taking in people from all over the world.
“For example, yesterday, Grupo Beta brought me some Muslim women from Somalia,” he said. “And they don’t speak English and they don’t speak Spanish, so we are trying to communicate with them through Google Translate. We don’t even know how they got here yet.”
Some U.S. organizations are trying to help. For example, the First United Methodist Church of San Diego donated a bus to help transport migrants. On Thursday, the bus took 40 asylumseeking women and children from the El Chaparral port of entry to the Templo Embajadores de Jesus shelter in Scorpion Canyon in Tijuana, which was already housing 200 migrants.
The Green Valley Church in California is building additional restroom and shower facilities at Agape.
But the U.S. charity may not be enough to save some shelters.
The Salvation Army shelter for migrant women and children is on the brink of closure because of the federal funding gap.
Capt. Isaac Olvera said he received word in February the government would no longer help support the $77,000 a year in operating expenses it takes to run Casa de Esperanza in the Colonia Libertad neighborhood of Tijuana. He said the shelter may soon have to close its doors.
For migrants including Maltilde Morales from El Salvador, that would mean heading back onto the streets of Tijuana with her three children as they wait for their Nov. 20 court appearance in U.S. immigration court.
Rivera, the pastor of Agape, said nonprofit shelters fill a need beyond just basic necessities such as food, clothing and a place to sleep.
“The hardest part of what we do is dealing with the psychiatric and psychological needs of the migrants, of the trauma that they’ve been through,” said Rivera, recounting a case in which a young woman from Guerrero was raped by four men and is now carrying twins as a result of the sexual assault.
“Right now, I’m struggling. I’m struggling with that case,” Rivera said.
He said the cutoff of federal funding may have some benefits.
“Because if I don’t receive any government funding, I feel I can look at the government with a straightforward face and say to the government officials: ‘You’re doing something wrong. It’s inappropriate,’ ” he said. “When you receive funding or something like that, they expect you to have a blind eye to their problems. That’s Mexican politics.”