Height of desperation
Hundreds protest growing number of asylum seekers at border city
A migrant, who is part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, climbing the border fence between Mexico and the United States in Tijuana, Mexico. The thousands of migrants who have poured into the border city in recent days find themselves not welcomed as residents protested against the asylum seekers’ presence.
TIJUANA: Hundreds of Tijuana residents congregated around a monument in an affluent section of the city south of California to protest the thousands of Central American migrants who have arrived via caravan in hopes of a new life in the United States.
Tensions have built as nearly 3,000 migrants from the caravan poured into Tijuana in recent days after over a month on the road, and with many more months ahead of them while they seek asylum.
The federal government estimates that the number of migrants could soon swell to 10,000.
US border inspectors are processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego.
Asylum seekers register their names in a tattered notebook managed by migrants themselves that had more than 3,000 names even before the caravan arrived.
On Sunday, displeased Tijuana residents waved Mexican flags, sang the Mexican national anthem and chanted “Out! Out!” in front of a statue of the Aztec ruler Cuauhtemoc, 1.6km from the US border.
They accused the migrants of being messy, ungrateful and a danger to Tijuana. They complained about how the caravan forced its way into Mexico, calling it an “invasion”. And they voiced worries that their taxes might be spent to care for the group.
“We don’t want them in Tijuana,” protesters shouted.
Juana Rodriguez, a housewife, said the government needed to conduct background checks on the migrants to make sure they did not have criminal records.
A block away, fewer than a dozen Tijuana residents stood with signs of support for the migrants.
Keyla Zamarron, a 38-year-old teacher, said the protesters did not represent her way of thinking as she held a sign saying “Childhood has no borders”.
Most of the migrants who have reached Tijuana via caravan in recent days set out more than a month ago from Honduras, a country of nine million people.
Dozens of migrants in the caravan who were interviewed said they left their country after death threats. But the journey has been hard and many have turned around.
Alden Rivera, the Honduran ambassador in Mexico, said on Saturday that 1,800 Hondurans had returned to their country since the caravan first set out on Oct 13, and that he hoped more would make that decision.
Honduras has a murder rate of 43 per 100,000 residents, similar to US cities like New Orleans and Detroit. In addition to violence, migrants in the caravan have mentioned poor economic prospects as a motivator for their departures.
Per capita income hovers at US$120 (RM502) a month in Hon- duras, where the World Bank says two out of three people live in poverty.
The migrants’ expected long stay in Tijuana has raised concerns about the ability of the border city of more than 1.6 million people to handle the influx.
Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum has called the migrants’ arrival an “avalanche” that the city is ill-prepared to handle, calculating that they will be in Tijuana for at least six months as they wait to file asylum claims.
Mexico’s Interior Ministry said on Saturday that the federal government was flying in food and blankets for the migrants in Tijuana.
At the municipal shelter, Josue Caseres, 24, expressed dismay at the protests against the caravan.
“We are fleeing violence,” said the entertainer from Santa Barbara, Honduras. “How can they think we are going to come here to be violent?”