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Violence breaks out as first wave of migrant caravan
arrives in Tijuana, Mexico
Hundreds of people who arrived in Tijuana with the first wave of the migrant caravan planned to spend Wednesday night in a makeshift camp by the Pacific Ocean, steps from the tall border fence that separates Mexico and the United States. But those plans shifted in the evening, after local and state officials opened a temporary shelter – and about 300 local residents gathered by the encampment to demand the migrants leave the upscale Playas de Tijuana neighborhood and go to the facility.
During a confrontation that lasted more than three hours, area residents sang the Mexican national anthem and waved Mexican flags. They chanted “Mexico! Mexico!” each time a bus transporting migrants left the beach for the temporary shelter. Mostly women and children went to the shelters, while young men from the caravan said they were determined to stay together at the beach and await the estimated 2,000 more caravan members on their way to Tijuana.
By Thursday, the migrants had left the beach and joined hundreds of caravan members at a temporary shelter at the Benito Juarez sports complex. The complex has room for 3,000 people to sleep on thin mattresses on the floor of an indoor basketball court, in large, communal tents and in individual camping tents, according to a local official.
“The message to the migrant population is very clear,” Francisco Rueda Gómez, secretary-general of the state of Baja California. “We are providing them with humanitarian support, health care and food, however the need to take into consideration the rules of the shelters so they can coexist in harmony with the local population.”
Rueda Gómez said it will cost about $4 million to care for the migrants for two months, including providing food and medical care. He said the state government can only afford to fund this work for 10 days at the most, so he has asked the federal government for support.
As the conflict intensified, Irineo Mujica, an immigrant activist who helps organize migrant caravans, said the migrants still at the beach – and the ones en route to Tijuana – wouldn’t go to the shelters. He referred to them as “jails” with strict curfews. He said he was concerned that non-governmental organizations wouldn’t be allowed into the shelters, making it harder for the migrants to remain organized as one collective.
“For this reason – because this is oppression – we prefer to be in the streets, in the cold, rather than in a jail,” Mujica said
There are at least three separate migrant caravans snaking their way through Mexico. Nearly 900 people from the first caravan arrived in Tijuana this week and on Wednesday night, local and state officials estimated 2,000 more were on their way. Several hundred of those 2,000 arrived Thursday morning, according to local reports. A second caravan started arriving in Mexico City Tuesday and as of Wednesday, a third caravan was traveling through Veracruz, on the eastern side of Mexico.
arrives in Tijuana, Mexico
Hundreds of people who arrived in Tijuana with the first wave of the migrant caravan planned to spend Wednesday night in a makeshift camp by the Pacific Ocean, steps from the tall border fence that separates Mexico and the United States. But those plans shifted in the evening, after local and state officials opened a temporary shelter – and about 300 local residents gathered by the encampment to demand the migrants leave the upscale Playas de Tijuana neighborhood and go to the facility.
During a confrontation that lasted more than three hours, area residents sang the Mexican national anthem and waved Mexican flags. They chanted “Mexico! Mexico!” each time a bus transporting migrants left the beach for the temporary shelter. Mostly women and children went to the shelters, while young men from the caravan said they were determined to stay together at the beach and await the estimated 2,000 more caravan members on their way to Tijuana.
By Thursday, the migrants had left the beach and joined hundreds of caravan members at a temporary shelter at the Benito Juarez sports complex. The complex has room for 3,000 people to sleep on thin mattresses on the floor of an indoor basketball court, in large, communal tents and in individual camping tents, according to a local official.
“The message to the migrant population is very clear,” Francisco Rueda Gómez, secretary-general of the state of Baja California. “We are providing them with humanitarian support, health care and food, however the need to take into consideration the rules of the shelters so they can coexist in harmony with the local population.”
Rueda Gómez said it will cost about $4 million to care for the migrants for two months, including providing food and medical care. He said the state government can only afford to fund this work for 10 days at the most, so he has asked the federal government for support.
As the conflict intensified, Irineo Mujica, an immigrant activist who helps organize migrant caravans, said the migrants still at the beach – and the ones en route to Tijuana – wouldn’t go to the shelters. He referred to them as “jails” with strict curfews. He said he was concerned that non-governmental organizations wouldn’t be allowed into the shelters, making it harder for the migrants to remain organized as one collective.
“For this reason – because this is oppression – we prefer to be in the streets, in the cold, rather than in a jail,” Mujica said
There are at least three separate migrant caravans snaking their way through Mexico. Nearly 900 people from the first caravan arrived in Tijuana this week and on Wednesday night, local and state officials estimated 2,000 more were on their way. Several hundred of those 2,000 arrived Thursday morning, according to local reports. A second caravan started arriving in Mexico City Tuesday and as of Wednesday, a third caravan was traveling through Veracruz, on the eastern side of Mexico.
