Migrant shelter in SLRC avoids virus
SAN LUIS RIO COLORADO, Son. – Notwithstanding fear of a COVID-19 outbreak, no cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in this city’s migrant shelter, its director says.
The Casa del Migrante La Divina houses people who have been deported from the United States for illegal entry, or who have pending application for asylum in this country.
As the number of cases of the coronavirus were spiking in the region earlier this year, the shelter’s director, Martin Salgado, had been gearing up for an outbreak among the people
it houses.
“It seems God has an umbrella out for these people, because we know of no one being infected by COVID-19,” he said.”We have had the same luck all along – we haven’t had any infection.”
One previously suspected coronavirus case among the shelter’s guests turned out in testing to be negative.
Part of the reason for
there being no recorded cases is that occupancy has dropped in recent months. Lately less than half of the shelter’s beds have been occupied, Salgado said.
“Curiously there has been no increase in deportations” from the United States. “I attribute that, mainly because of the comments I hear, to the (border) wall being unsurmountable and because of the technology the United
States has on the border” for detecting illegal entries. “It’s not that the American dream no longer exists, but rather it’s more very difficult to cross.”
Also, he added, the number of people housed in the shelter dropped when the U.S. Port of Entry in San Luis suspended interviews of asylum seekers, most of them coming from Central American nations and southern Mexico.