“You have people who are in very desperate, vulnerable situations commingling with people that are parts of organized criminal networks, including cartels and gangs,” one expert said.
Gustavo Banda spends one to three hours every day on Facebook trying to warn migrants desperate to enter the United States not to waste their money on human.
The Migrant Crisis: A View From the Other Side of the Border
TIJUANA, Mexico In a dim church auditorium with three-story ceilings, nestled at the bottom of a steep, trash-strewn canyon in Tijuana, Mexico, the loud cries of hundreds of children pierce the air.
Huddled inside, some sleeping on mats, over a thousand migrants from Central and South America have sought shelter in the Iglesia Embajadores de Jesús, one of the only indoor options they have while waiting to navigate the path to U.S. citizenship.
Thousands of travelers have flocked to this border town, lured by the promise of newly elected U.S. President Joe Biden and a loosening of immigration restrictions, hoping to escape oppressive conditions in their homelands and start a new life in America.
U.S. bound-migrants vaccinated for COVID-19 in Mexican border city
FILE PHOTO: Tijuana, Mexico is pictured behind one of the primary border walls between Mexico and the U.S., east of San Diego, California, U.S., February 2, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Blake reuters tickers
This content was published on May 6, 2021 - 21:45
May 6, 2021 - 21:45
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - More than a thousand migrants who hope to reach the United States were vaccinated against COVID-19 on Thursday through a first-time effort made possible by a private donation of shots from a U.S. company, a shelter director said.
About 1,200 migrants, mainly from Central America, received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the border city of Tijuana, said Gustavo Banda, director of the Ambassadors of Jesus shelter. He declined to give the name of the donor.
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The Biden administration has flown roughly 2,000 asylum seekers all families with children from Texas to San Diego and expelled them from the United States to Mexico without giving them a chance to request protection.
Tijuana has been receiving on average about 100 expelled people a day from the flights, according to the Mexican consulate in San Diego. Mexican immigration officials generally transport the families to migrant shelters. The primary shelter is currently filled with hundreds of parents and children.
The flights, which have not received much attention since they started in mid-March, mirrors strategies used by President Joe Biden’s predecessor, former President Donald Trump, to try to deter people from coming by putting those who do come in difficult situations in Mexico.