Anti-caravan protest starts peaceful, turns tense outside Tijuana migrant shelter

Protestors on Sunday began a march at the Zone Rio near the monument of Cuauhtemoc in Tijuana. Organizers said the demonstration was not anti-migrant but "anti-invasion." (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Gustavo Solis Contact Reporter

What started out as a peaceful march in Tijuana Sunday turned tense as hundreds of anti-caravan protestors marched to a shelter where a couple thousand Honduran migrants are staying.

Protestors threw beer cans at riot police who blocked their entrance to the shelter as the crowd shouted, “Hondurans get out, we don’t want you here,” around noon in Tijuana’s Zona Norte.

The march against the caravan began at 9 a.m. Sunday. Organizers said the event was not necessarily anti-migrant but anti-invasion.

“Legal migration, yes — illegal invasions, no,” said organizer Fidel Ernesto Gonzalez Hernandez. “That is our message.”

More than 1,000 demonstrators showed up. Many wore Mexican soccer jerseys, waved Mexican flags, and sang the Mexican anthem.

Children carried signs that read, “Mexico first,” and “No more caravans.”

The demonstrators’ main gripe with the Central American caravan is that the migrants are undocumented, therefore residents do not know how many members of the caravan have criminal records and may pose a threat. .

“I’m not of the opinion that all of them should leave,” said Tijuana resident Veronica Esquivel, 45. “I think that the criminals should be deported, and the ones who want to stay or go to the United States should do so legally.”

On Friday, Mexico’s National Migration Institute reported that 2,679 migrants had arrived in Tijuana and 1,500 more were already in Mexicali and planned to go to Tijuana.

Anti-caravan demonstrators said the situation is already tense and they don’t want to see it get out of hand. Several said they were worried about President Donald Trump’s statement about closing the border.

“If they close the border because of what the migrants are doing this will become a big problem,” said Javier Alvarez, 48, of Tijuana. “It’s going to be chaos.”

Alvarez added that many people who live in Tijuana work in San Diego and vice versa. Therefore closing the border would have drastic economic consequences.

The protestors also criticized the government’s response to the migrant caravan. Their criticism was both that the Mexican government is doing too much and too little.

Too much because more than 53 million people live in poverty in Mexico and resources should be spent on Mexicans, not migrants.

Too little because the government’s response has been disorganized and ineffective.

“Why doesn’t our government set up a tent city outside Tijuana where they can provide food, shelter, and water to the migrants,” said Rafael Lario Juarez, 63, of Tijuana.

The group marched from Tijuana’s Zona Rio to the makeshift shelter in a sports complex near the border about 11 a.m.

The original plan was to finish the march outside a government building. But protestors decided to head to the shelter where many of the migrants are staying.

Gonzalez, one of the march organizers, tried to stop the crowd to no avail.

“The march ends here!” he shouted at the marchers. “Don’t go to the shelter, that’s a provocation.”

Men and women carrying signs and Mexican flags walked by Gonzalez.

Some shouted back, “Shut up, we’re going to the shelters.”

At the shelter, the marchers were met with police barricades.

Although some threw beer cans and pushed the police, the march did not turn violent.

Those staying at the shelter were not allowed to leave because of the anti-caravan march.

“Everyone here is nervous because of those people,” said James Pena, 30, of Honduras. “There are a lot of women and children here.”

Pena said this is the first time since he joined the caravan in Honduras that people have been hostile toward the migrants.

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