An immigration camp in Tijuana, Mexico, an immigration camp blocking a major crosswalk to the United States, may be the beginning of an operation to erect a chain link fence and register at night

Fear hangs over the U.S.-Mexico border

Tijuana, Mexico — As night fell, about 250 police and city workers poured into a dirty camp to house immigrants who wanted to apply for asylum in the United States. Immigrants must register documents or leave. Within a few hours, those who remained were surrounded by enough barbed wire to be twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.

The October 28 operation may be the beginning of the end of a camp that once housed about 2,000 people and blocked the main border crossing to the United States. There may be more camps.

First lady Jill Biden severely criticized a similar camp in Matamoros, which borders Brownsville, Texas, during her visit in 2019. She said: "This is not our identity as Americans." Bye The Denon government touted the closure of the camp in March, but others emerged in nearby Reynosa and Tijuana at about the same time.

These camps are crowded with young children and are the product of policies that force immigrants to wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration courts or prohibit them from seeking asylum under public health rights related to the pandemic. The uncertainty of the US asylum policy has also led to a continuous increase in the immigrant population of Mexico’s border cities, creating conditions for more refugee camps.

In border cities, immigrants are often out of public view, but the Tijuana camp is very eye-catching and destructive. Tents covered with blue tarps and black plastic bags prevent entry to border crossings. Before the pandemic, an average of about 12,000 people entered the United States every day. It is one of three pedestrian crossings leading to San Diego.

The United States fully reopened its land borders with Mexico and Canada on November 8 to vaccinate travelers.

Tijuana’s first female mayor, Montserrat Caballero, said that before she took office on October 1, officials had “almost nothing” to control the camp. When she asked the Mexican state and the federal government to work with her to erect the fence and introduce the register, they refused.

"Authorities at all levels are afraid-afraid of making mistakes, afraid of doing wrong and affecting their political career," she said in an interview. "No one wants to deal with these issues."

Cavallero said she took action to protect immigrants. She did not know that homicides or kidnappings occurred in the camp, but the Associated Press found that attacks, drug abuse and threats were common.

"I can't close my eyes to the flashing red light I see," she said. "Close your eyes will only make it grow."

The only entrance is guarded by the Tijuana police around the clock. Immigrants with documents can enter and exit freely.

"Until further notice, there is no asylum procedure (in the US)," Enrique Lucero, the city's director of immigration services, told people who asked about US policy during a morning visit last week.

Since March 2020, the United States has used Section 42 named after the Public Health Act to expel adults and families who do not have asylum opportunities, except for unaccompanied children. But the Biden administration only exercised this power on one in every four family members, mainly due to resource constraints and Mexico’s unwillingness to take back Central American families.

It is not clear why the United States released many asylum-seeking families and sent others back to Mexico, prompting those deported to persist until success.

Mayra Funes, a 28-year-old Honduran, said that in March, she and her 7-year-old daughter were deported while illegally crossing the border near McAllen, Texas, and she had no opportunity to file a complaint with the agents. She wondered if she would try again after six months in the Tijuana camp.

"There is no hope to know how they will open this process," she said.

Lucero, a gentle graduate of George Washington University who worked at the Mexican consulate in Chicago, said his job was to persuade immigrants to move to shelters, including large facilities recently opened by the Mexican federal and state governments . Many people are closed by curfews and other shelter rules, fearing that staying away from the border will cut them off from news of changes in US policy.

The 37-year-old Natalina Nazario stopped Lucero without any persuasiveness and accepted the city’s offer to pay for her and her 17- and 11-year-old sons. Proposal for a bus fare in Acapulco, 1,900 miles (3,040 kilometers) away. She was worried about violence in the Mexican coastal city, but after a month in the camp, she did not want her children to miss more schools.

Few people noticed Lucero's existence. Olga Galicia, a 23-year-old from Guatemala, sits on the side of the road, washing clothes with a plastic bucket of soapy water. She stayed in the refugee camp for about 6 months and said she would stay with her 3 and 1 year old sons until she got more information on how to seek asylum in the United States.

Cavallero said that Tijuana will not forcefully expel any immigrants, and he expects not to leave during the seasonal rains. Thousands of migrants in the 2018 caravan slept outside in the cold downpour of November.

The city estimated that the camp could accommodate 1,700 people two weeks before the operation on October 28. Caballero publicly warned that the operation was coming, but did not say when.

The first statistics on October 29 showed that there were 769 immigrants, of whom more than 40% were children. Half of them are Mexicans — many from the conflict-torn Guerrero and Michoacán states — one third are Hondurans, and the rest are almost entirely Salvadorans and Guatemalans.

Cavallero said the sharp drop before registration may reflect that many people living there are homeless in Tijuana, rather than immigrants.

The camp occupies a large square that was once deserted. A group of sidewalks consist of some rows, which are wide enough in some parts to allow two people to walk in opposite directions. People rest in tents or on folding chairs outdoors.

There are 12 portable bathrooms, 10 showers and a shared faucet for washing clothes. Charities donate food to immigrants who prepare hot chocolate, omelettes, hot dogs and pasta for everyone. The Federal Utilities Company recently prevented the electricity theft from the camp, darkened the camp at night, and forced the makeshift kitchen to rely on canned food.

For the immigration camp in Reynosa on the border of McAllen, Texas, the future is uncertain. There were about 2,000 people in a square near the city’s main border crossing, said Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, the head of the Sidewalk School that educates children there.

According to a court order, the Biden administration plans to soon resume the Trump-era policy, allowing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for a hearing in the United States. This depends on the approval of Mexican officials, who told the U.S. authorities that they need more asylum beds and are worried. Violence in Tamaulipas, including Reynosa.

Blas Nuñez-Nieto, acting assistant to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for border and immigration policy, said that after the U.S. and Mexican authorities have resolved "a series of unresolved issues", "stay in Mexico" "The policy is expected to resume in the "coming weeks." Court documents were submitted on Monday. He did not elaborate.

Caballero said that the US authorities did not pressure Mexico to reopen the busy crosswalk between Tijuana and San Diego. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that it is working closely with Mexico to "determine how to resume normal travel safely and sustainably."

The mayor plans to ask the Mexican National Guard to help prevent the re-emergence of refugee camps in Tijuana.

"The reality is that if we are not prepared, camps will be established," she said.

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