Newspaper Page Text
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
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■ 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. We
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people, because we never
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be down on our luck.”
As the line began to
shorten, Mauricio said
any leftover food would be
taken out into the commu
nity to people who might
not have been able to make
it to the Thanksgiving meal.
“I never dreamed it
would get this big,” Mauri
cio said. “We want every
body that doesn’t have a
Thanksgiving, to know that
they have a Thanksgiving
meal here.”
‘A lot of kids, they think community
service is only for when they’re in
trouble ... Community service is
a part of all of our duties, not just
because you’re in trouble. So that’s
what I’m teaching my boys.’
Tonya Hagins
volunteer
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