Migrant shelters in Tijuana, such as Zona Norte's Juventud 2000, are overflowing with tents as people from all over the world continue to arrive in the city

By Brooke Binkowski | 9 hours ago

Although the wave of people seeking asylum, refuge, or humanitarian parole in the United States continues unabated, the United States has announced that it will resume deportations of Haitians, six years after suspending them when an earthquake devastated Haiti’s infrastructure in 2010. That will have an immediate effect on how Haitians appearing at the San Ysidro Port of Entry — and every other — will be processed: As of last week, they will be detained and processed under “expedited removal,” also known as the rocket docket, without an appearance before an immigration judge.

The decision has been decried by human rights activists on both sides of the border. Now, hundreds, if not thousands, of people from Haiti to Senegal are stuck in Tijuana, many in limbo as they contend with the U.S.’s new laws — with thousands more on the way. Zona Norte shelter Juventud 2000 has begun erecting tents along the sidewalk outside its walls in order to handle the spillover, its members fretting over whether they will be denied entry into the United States and if they are, where they will go next.

Shelters, meanwhile, are desperate for donations: While Tijuanenses are showing unprecedented generosity, there remains a need for toiletries, tents, blankets and clothes.

Dozens of people marched from a Zona Norte migrant shelter to the border Friday during a visit from priest and migrants’ rights advocate Padre Alejandro Solalinde, who says that organized crime is responsible for the influx of people from all over the world in Tijuana (and now, Tecate and Mexicali).

The group called for leaders in both the United States and Mexico to do more to help immigrants, as well as those who are waiting to enter the United States and those who have been deported. Sergio Tamai, with Mexicali-based immigrant-rights group Angeles Sin Fronteras, calls it a “crisis of migration.”


Sergio Tamai calls for more government help sheltering people who have been deported to Mexico, as well as those who are waiting to enter the United States.

“We will keep making noise,” he said.

Tamai added that the U.S. and Mexican governments are exacerbating what is already a human rights crisis: Mexico for not opening more shelters or doing more to support the organizations that are already in place, and the United States for their immigration and deportation policies.

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Rep. Juan Vargas, who represents California’s 51st Congressional District, introduced a package last week that would keep U.S. military veterans from being deported. It would also help deported veterans get access to medical care and services: Many veterans who have been deported from the United States were honorably discharged, and are entitled to benefits and VA care, but cannot access them because they cannot appear in person to receive them. The package would also track non-citizen veterans applying for immigration benefits, and let veterans temporarily return to the U.S. to seek care from a VA facility, if necessary.

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