Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum declared a humanitarian crisis in response to the massive caravan of Central American migrants overwhelming his city. Nearly 5,000 mostly male migrants have descended on the large border city demanding entrance into the U.S.
Mexican officials had offered refuge to the caravan members, but were rebuffed. Now, the migrants, a portion of whom have been identified as criminals and various gang members, are causing stress on the already stressed border community.
Tijuana residents are angry that the Mexican government did not stop the caravan earlier.
Members of the caravan are being temporarily housed in the Benito Juárez stadium.
According to Tijuana officials, a total of 108 members of the caravan have been arrested by Tijuana Police. Alleged crimes include “theft, drug possession, fighting, public drunkenness, and causing riots.”
In his call for assistance, Mayor Gastelum noted:
More than 700 municipal and state public officials are volunteers.
Volunteers at the stadium have delivered 36,000 servings of hot food and purified water.
12 toilets were installed in the sports stadium, and in addition, 23 portable toilets were installed by both the state and local governments.
Around 10,000 articles of personal hygiene have been delivered such as soap, shampoo, body lotion, wet towels, diapers, toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes and feminine towels.
Four cleaning and garbage collection schedules have been arranged, and staff is collecting more than 5 tons of garbage daily.
A total of 8,000 blankets and 3,500 mattresses have been distributed.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials temporarily suspended some operations at the San Ysidro port of entry early Monday morning. CBP officials temporarily suspended processing for all northbound vehicle traffic at the border crossing, as well as northbound pedestrian processing. The lanes were closed to install additional port hardening materials at the port of entry, to prepare for the potential arrival of the caravan.
In the early morning hours, CBP officials received reports of groups of persons from the caravan gathering in Tijuana for a possible attempt or attempts to rush illegally through the port of entry instead of presenting themselves as required to a CBP officer. CBP officials suspended operations to place impediments at the port of entry that would restrict access to a large group attempting to run through the border crossing. After the CBP response at San Ysidro, no activity materialized at the border crossing.
“CBP will not allow for the unlawful entry of persons into the United States, at or between our ports of entry,” said Pete Flores, Director of Field Operations in San Diego. “Waiting until a large group of persons mass at the border to attempt an illegal crossing is too late for us; we need to be prepared prior to when they arrive at the border crossing.”