A year has passed since two Central American caravans arrived in Tijuana last fall... everything has changed...
Today, few Central American asylum seekers have been able to make it to Tijuana. In the last 12 months, a combination of US deterrence policy and a massive Mexican immigration crackdown has destroyed northward movement towards Tijuana...
Tijuana looks much different today than it did a year ago. When the caravans first arrived, the international media descended on the city in a swarm; camera flashes lit up shelters. Now, the city has mostly recovered from the chaos of last fall. Migration from the south has plunged to such a slow trickle that when I asked the city’s new mayor, Arturo González Cruz, what he thought of the issue, he told me, “It is practically not a problem.”
Instead, he said his city was facing a different challenge: People coming back into Tijuana from the United States.
“Right now, the real issue concerning migration has come from the US government deciding to expel migrants,” González said...
Today, the option of crossing between ports is no longer viable for most asylum seekers. Even if they face persecution in Mexico, crossing both legally and illegally comes with a high likelihood of being returned to Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...
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Migrant Camp in Tijuana, December 2018, same camp December 2019:
The larger question for me is......What is it with all these Africans, Arabs. Chinese, ETC. trying to get into the USA. Who is funding their trip through Central America, and into Mexico?
Today, few Central American asylum seekers have been able to make it to Tijuana. In the last 12 months, a combination of US deterrence policy and a massive Mexican immigration crackdown has destroyed northward movement towards Tijuana...
Tijuana looks much different today than it did a year ago. When the caravans first arrived, the international media descended on the city in a swarm; camera flashes lit up shelters. Now, the city has mostly recovered from the chaos of last fall. Migration from the south has plunged to such a slow trickle that when I asked the city’s new mayor, Arturo González Cruz, what he thought of the issue, he told me, “It is practically not a problem.”
Instead, he said his city was facing a different challenge: People coming back into Tijuana from the United States.
“Right now, the real issue concerning migration has come from the US government deciding to expel migrants,” González said...
Today, the option of crossing between ports is no longer viable for most asylum seekers. Even if they face persecution in Mexico, crossing both legally and illegally comes with a high likelihood of being returned to Mexico.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenation.com ...
------------
Migrant Camp in Tijuana, December 2018, same camp December 2019:
The larger question for me is......What is it with all these Africans, Arabs. Chinese, ETC. trying to get into the USA. Who is funding their trip through Central America, and into Mexico?
