Despite what Trump says, we are not killers... we are the ones being killed
his calls for a wall along the US border. Last week, he tweeted: “Murder cases in Mexico in 2018 rose 33% from 2017 to 33,341.
“This is a big contributor to the humanitarian crisis taking place on our southern border and then spreading throughout our country. Worse even than Afghanistan. Much caused by drugs. Wall is being built.”
He said later: “Why wouldn’t any sane person want to build a wall.”
The Mirror travelled to the far west coast of America to cross into Tijuana as the final destination in its 1,990-mile drive along the border, visiting those communities most affected by Trump’s controversial policies.
Heading west from Yuma, Arizona, we finally got to San Diego, before crossing into Mexico at the San Ysidro border checkpoint.
We are waved straight through. Once in Tijuana, we found how, in recent weeks, officials in the city have compounded the crisis by clearing out two large migrant settlements, putting people on to the streets.
Many say the camps were closed due to US pressure. More than 5,000 migrants from such countries as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala were evicted from the Benito Juarez Sports Complex in December.
Many moved to El Barretal, which was once a nightclub, located approximately 10 miles southeast of the San Ysidro crossing, but last week that was also cleared. Jaime says: “When we are together, we have safety in numbers. But as Trump sends people back and officials here break up our camps, we now all live in fear of the gangs.
“People are killed here for nothing. Gangs prey on the weak, and there aren’t any weaker than us right now.”
Aid worker Trudi Gurten said Trump’s policy is putting lives at risk. She explained: “He and his government are tone-deaf to these people’s plight, but he acknowledges the genuine threat of death they could face.
“While he’s calling them criminals, he fails to see the thousands of migrants as genuine people who are fleeing the violence he uses to argue for his wall. It makes no sense.”
Not that long ago, Tijuana was celebrating a significant reduction in violence.
Today, its 1.8 million people are in the grip of an unprecedented murder crisis. A record 2,518 people were killed here last year – almost seven times the total six years ago. With 140 killings per 100,000 people, Tijuana is one of the deadliest cities in the world.
Just a few miles away, across the border in San Diego, there were 34 murders last year, or just over two killings per 100,000 people.
Before, Tijuana’s body count was driven by drug cartels battling over lucrative trafficking routes to the States. Now, the main cause is competition in a burgeoning local drug trade, with dealers fighting for territory.
Officials estimate that up to 90% of the city’s murders are linked to local drug sales.
Authorities blame one drug for the growing carnage – methamphetamine or, as it is known in Spanish, “cristal”.
At the equivalent of just €1.70 a wrap, and falling as makers find cheaper production
ON DANGERS OF TIJUANA
methods, it is sold by thousands of competing dealers across the city. And many are now targeting the migrants.
Honduran Taria Lopez-cuidado, 38, spends half the money she makes begging on cristal. She paid taxes for 20 years in the States before being deported last year after a boyfriend called police on her during a domestic dispute. She is now living in a tent while trying to get back to America, where some of her family still live. But since being in Tijuana, she has become a meth addict.
She says: “It’s the only thing that takes me away from my problems. If I make say $15 [€13], I’ll spend half of it on meth.
“The rest will go on food. I have been beaten up several times, and I know of several guys who have been killed.”
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