Migrants fill Tijuana shelters, more on way to U.S. border

TIJUANA, MEXICO — Members of a migrant caravan started to meet some local resistance as they contin- ued to arrive by the hundreds in the Mexican border city of Tijuana, where a group of residents clashed with migrants camped out by the U.S. border fence.

About 100 migr a nts declined offers of rides to shelters and had camped out late Wednesday by the steel border fence at Tijuana’s beach area, when a simi- lar number of local residents marched up to the group shouting, “You’re not welcome,” and, “Get out!”

Police kept the two sides apart.

Vladimir Cruz, a migrant from El Salvador, said Thurs- day, “These people are the racists, because 95 percent of people here support us.”

“It is just this little group that doesn’t support us,” Cruz said. “They are uncomfortable because we’re here.”

Playas de Tijuana, as the area is known, is an upper- middle-class enclave, and residents appeared worried about crime and sanitation. One protester shouted, “This isn’t about discrimination, it is about safety!”

There are real questions about how the city of Tijuana will manage to handle the migrant caravans working their way up through Mexico, and which may total 10,000 people in all.

“No city in the world is prepared to receive this number of migrants,” said Mario Osuna, the Tijuana city social development director. He said the city hopes the federal government “will start legalizing these people imme- diately” so they could get jobs and earn a living in Tijuana.

The migrants, who slept in overcrowded shelters and in tents with a view of armed U.S. Border Patrol agents, said they will wait for other migrants to join them before making their next moves.

Hundreds of migrants have arrived by bus in Tijuana since Tuesday, occupying the little space still available in the city’s shelters and spilling onto an oceanfront plaza sandwiched between an old bullring and a border fence topped with recently installed concertina wire.

The first arrivals generally received a warm welcome despite Tijuana’s shelter system to house migrants being at capacity. Migrants lined up for food while doctors checked those fighting colds and other ailments.

Some migrants said they would seek asylum at a U.S. border crossing, while others said they might attempt to elude U.S. authorities by crossing illegally or perhaps settle in Tijuana. But all of about a dozen people interviewed Wednesday said they would first wait for others from the migrant caravan to arrive and gather more information.

“We have to see what we’re offered, just so they don’t send us back to our country,” said Jairon Sorto, a 22-yearold Honduran who arrived by bus Wednesday.