About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 2018)
4C Sunday, November 18, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com LOCAL/WORLD Migrants get cool reception in Mexican border town RODRIGO ABD I Associated Press A Central American migrant boy eats a donated breakfast at a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, early Saturday morning, Nov. 17. BY JULIE WATSON Associated Press TIJUANA, Mexico — Many of the nearly 3,000 Central American migrants who have reached the Mexican border with California via caravan said Saturday they do not feel welcome in the city of Tijuana, where hundreds more migrants are headed after more than a month on the road. The vast majority were camped at an outdoor sports complex, sleeping on a dirt baseball field and under bleachers with a view of the steel walls topped by barbed wire at the newly reinforced U.S.- Mexico border. The city opened the complex after other shelters were filled to capacity. Church groups provided portable showers, bathrooms and sinks. The federal government estimates the migrant crowd in Tijuana could soon swell to 10,000. Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum has called the migrants’ arrival an “avalanche” that the city is ill-prepared to handle, cal culating that they will be in Tijuana for at least six months as they wait to file asylum claims. U.S. border inspectors are processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego. Asylum seekers register their names in a tattered notebook managed by migrants themselves that had more than 3,000 names even before the caravan arrived. While many in Tijuana are sym pathetic to the migrants’ plight and trying to assist, some locals have shouted insults, hurled rocks and even thrown punches at the them. It’s a stark contrast to the many Mexican communities that wel comed the caravan with signs, music and donations of clothing after it entered Mexico nearly a month ago. Countless residents of rural areas pressed fruit and bags of water into the migrants’ hands as they passed through southern Mex ico, wishing them safe journeys. Alden Rivera, the Honduran ambassador in Mexico, visited the outdoor sports complex Satur day. Rivera expects the migrants will need to be sheltered for eight months or more, and said he is working with Mexico to get more funds to care for them. He expects the migrant numbers in Tijuana to reach 3,400 over the weekend, with another 1,200 migrants hav ing made it to Mexicali, another border city a few hours to the east of Tijuana. An additional 1,500 migrants plan to reach the U.S. bor der region next week. Rivera said 1,800 Hondurans have returned to their country since the caravan first set out on Oct. 13, and that he hopes more will make that decision. “We want them to return to Hon duras,” Rivera said, adding that each migrant must weigh whether to go home, appeal for asylum in Mexico or wait in line to apply for asylum in the U.S. The Mexican Interior Minis try said Friday that 2,697 Cen tral American migrants have requested asylum in Mexico under a program that the coun try launched on Oct. 26 to more quickly get them credentials needed to live, work and study in southern Mexico. Ivis Munoz, 26, has considered returning to Honduras. The coffee farmer called his father in Atima, Honduras, on Saturday to consult on his next move a few days after being attacked on a beach by locals in Tijuana. His father told him to stick it out. Munoz has a bullet in his leg. A gang member shot him a year ago in Honduras and threatened to kill him if he sees him again. Munoz said he found out later his girl friend had been cheating on him with the gang member. He’s afraid to go home, but he feels unwelcome in Tijuana. Munoz was asleep on a beach in Tijuana with about two dozen other migrants when rocks came rain ing down on them around 2 a.m. Wednesday. He heard a man shout in the darkness: “We don’t want you here! Go back to your coun try!” Munoz and the others got up and ran for cover, heading toward the residential streets nearby. As the sun rose, they hitched a ride on a passing truck to Tijuana’s downtown. Now he is staying at the sports complex. “I don’t know what to do,” said Munoz. He fears the U.S. won’t grant him asylum, and that he’ll get deported if he tries to cross into the country without authorization. Carlos Padilla, 57, a migrant from Progreso, Honduras, said a Tijuana resident shouted “migrants are pigs” as he passed on the street recently. He did not respond. “We didn’t come here to cause problems, we came here with love and with the intention to ask for asylum,” Padilla said. “But they treat us like animals here.” Padilla said he will likely return to Honduras if the U.S. rejects his asylum request. The migrants’ expected long stay in Tijuana has raised con cerns about the ability of the bor der city of more than 1.6 million to handle the influx. Tijuana officials said they con verted the municipal gymnasium and recreational complex into a shelter to keep migrants out of pub lic spaces. The city’s privately run shelters have a maximum capacity of 700. The municipal complex can hold up to 3,000; as of Friday night there were 2,397 migrants there. Some business owners near the shelter complained on Satur day of migrants panhandling and stealing. Francisco Lopez, 50, owns a furniture store nearby. He said a group of migrants took food from a small grocery a few doors down, and he worries crime in the area will rise the longer the migrants stay at the shelter. Other neighbors expressed empathy. “These poor people have left their country and they’re in an unfamiliar place,” said Maria de Jesus Izarraga, 68, who lives two blocks from complex. As Izarraga spoke from her front door, a man interrupted to ask for money to buy a plate of beans. He said he came with the caravan and had blisters on his feet. She gave him some pesos, and continued speaking: “I hope this all works out in the best possible way.” AUSTIN STEELE I The Times Volunteers with Latin American Missionary Program Ministries prepare free boxed meals for people at Triufantes De Jesucristo Church, Saturday, Nov. 17. Cyclone kills 33 in India NEW DELHI - A pow erful cyclone in southern India has killed at least 33 people, caused mas sive damage to homes and roads and drove thousands into camps, officials said. India’s navy assigned ships and a helicopter for relief work as authori ties rushed drinking water, food and para medics to nearly 82,000 people who took shelter. They were evacuated from the path of Cyclone Gaja, which struck six districts of Tamil Nadu state on Friday with heavy rains and winds. Rescuers found 13 bod ies Friday and an addi tional 20 on Saturday, said Edappadi Palaniswami, the state’s top elected official. Associated Press Save Your Selfie... Some Money! Auto Insurance Specialist • Easy Payments • Any Driver • Any Age NEW LOCATION! 2415 OLD CORNELIA HWY., GAINESVILLE Next to Rabbittown Cafe 770-450-4500 MEALS ■ Continued from 1C “This means a lot for me to bring them out here and show them, giving back to the community,” Hagins said. “A lot of kids, they think community service is only for when they’re in trouble ... Community ser vice is a part of all of our duties, not just because you’re in trouble. So that’s what I’m teaching my boys. This is what we do. 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