Stranded or deported: in Tijuana the migrants wander out of the street

Nemorio had gone home in the middle of the day, after he had worked in construction at the city of Oxnard in the US state of California that morning. He got out of his car in front of the apartment complex where he had been living with his wife for years, and since last year with their newborn daughter.

Nemorio was suddenly stuck. At first glance it seemed like a normal civilian vehicle, but behind the windshield there was a blue flashing light. Men in black uniforms got out and asked the Mexican for his residence papers. He didn’t have Nemorio: he entered the US illegally eleven years ago. The agents only let him go to his apartment to get his diabetes drugs, then they took him.

First to Los Angeles, where he was held fascinated in a detention center. He did not get access to a lawyer, had to sign a number of forms. That same evening he was taken to the border with Mexico, again fascinated, and deported. « Now I look for work every day. But I think I go back to Guerrero, the state where I come from, » sighs the nervous Nemorio. He had just fled that southern state because of the violence there. Whether and when he sees his family again, he doesn’t know.

Ten thousand expanded migrants

Nemorio is one of the more than ten thousand undocumented migrants who were deported to Mexico in the first months of Donald Trump. It is not yet figures that are currently announced by Trump announced by Trump in the history of the US: Mexico also received thousands of migrants every week under Biden and Obama.

After a often short detention in a migration center in the US, they are transferred to the local authorities at the Mexican border and then drove to a specially furnished shelter. As part of a federal strategy that embraces ‘Mexico is called you’, the Mexican government has set up nine of these types of reception centers in cities along the border, run and monitored by the militarized National Guard. Mexicans can then get a bus ticket to their place of birth, in addition to a sum of 100 dollars and help in finding housing and a job.

In an ultimate – and ultimately vain – attempt to keep Trump of import duties, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum seems to have made far -reaching migration agreements. In addition to the plan to receive Mexicans and non-Mexicans, she sent ten thousand soldiers to the border. At the border crossing in Tijuana, among other things, they check cars with drug dogs for the presence of Fentanyl. But they are also used elsewhere along the border to ensure that migrants do not cross the border with the US illegally.

Decrease in illegal crossings

Although in the first few weeks of Trumps presidency, fewer fewer people have ventured the crossing, there are still people who keep trying. At the Chaparral border crossing, where outdated Mexicans their native country income via a long, white pedestrian bridge that connects the two countries, Jaci is waiting. Her seventeen -year -old son was crossed the border illegally a day before, immediately arrested and is being deported again today, she says. She has taken his passport and birth certificate.

Migrants will continue to try to reach the US, says José Pérez Canchola. On the day of Trump’s inauguration, he was fired as director of the migration service in Tijuana, because he had dared to criticize the preparations for the Mexican government for the deportations. « A crisis threatens here, » Pérez begins. « Migrants are deported and at the same time there are people on the border who want to go to the US but cannot. And the government wants to solve it itself, while the real massive expansions still have to start. »

People who have often fled for violence are now being guarded by soldiers

According to Pérez, border cities such as Tijuana have decades -long experience with the care of migrants, via a well -organized network of inns, often run by church organizations. « But the government chooses to open a federal inn itself, where migrants are locked up. They are people who have often fled for violence and are now being guarded by soldiers. » The relevant federal inn in Tijuana is called Los Flamingos, along a busy road in a suburb of the city. Journalists are not allowed in, says a heavily armed soldier at the entrance.

Stranded in Tijuana

The other inns in Tijuana are still full of people who have sometimes been on the road for years to reach the US. The Assabíl inn is exclusively for people from Muslim countries. In the prayer room, three men are squatting on the blue carpet. Uzbeken, Afghans, Syrians and Ghanaians are often bored at their phone under bright fluorescent lights behind white tables.

The friendly smiling Yaya has been in Tijuana for months. He left Ghana, flew to Brazil, went via Ecuador to Central America, through the dreaded Dariénkloof in Panama, and further on to the north. There, after a journey of more than fifteen thousand kilometers, his journey ended a stone’s throw from his dream destination. « I keep confidence that I will reach the US, » says Yaya determined. « I have always learned to be patient and keep trust. That brought me here. » Yaya speaks, like most migrants in this inn, no Spanish and therefore cannot work in Tijuana.

Nasser from Afghanistan has a hard time but keeps hope, he says with a soft voice. « I am trained as a doctor. I speak English well. I will continue to wait until I can enter the US. » Because his brother worked for the American army, his whole family had to leave the country on the run for the Taliban. The rest of his family already reached the US and received a residence permit there. Nasser flew through Turkey to Mexico and hopes for reunification with his family. « I don’t want to go to the US illegally. I have always done everything according to the rules. »

Anyone who waits for months is fed up and yet want to try to reach the US illegally, will have to pay towering prices to smugglers. Before Trumps second term as president, around $ 3,000 was paid for, amounts of up to 10,000 dollars are now spoken among stranded migrants. Through tunnels, with ladders or even boats, smugglers continue to look for ways to get people to the north. Where the chance that you will be caught on the American side and will be deported is high. There are also incidents on the Mexican side: at the beginning of February a Colombian woman was fatally hit by a police bird when she tried to cross the border at the height of the village of Tecate.

Host problems

Although the numbers of migrants on their way to the US have not been as high for months as in the years before, there are still many people pulling north through Mexico. The repression in Venezuela, the drug violence in Colombia, Ecuador and Honduras, the lack of economic perspectives in El Salvador and Guatemala: in the region there are numerous factors that drive people away from home and hearth. In order not to speak of the increased cartel violence in Mexican states such as Michoacán, Veracruz and Chiapas, which makes thousands of people displaced every year.

Tijuana has previously experienced migration crises and the reception centers in the border city say they are prepared for the arrival of more people, whether they have been plotted or stranded. But the total reception capacity in the border city threatens to shrink, warns Maricruz Garrido, social worker at Madre Asunta, an inn that focuses on the reception of women and their children. Her inn received both direct and indirect help via USAID, the American agency for foreign aid, of which programs have been stopped by the Trump government for the time being. In addition to direct funds, psychological and educational programs have been discontinued by other parties, says Garrido.

« Here we receive vulnerable women. Women who have fled their home country because of violence, who have experienced terrible things on the route here, » says Garrido. « We have been active for thirty years, but I can rub my hands if we are still open in two weeks. I don’t know what happens to the women in this inn. »

Two women, from Guatemala and El Salvador, say they want to try to find work in Tijuana. With a soft voice, the Guatemalekse woman says: « It is clear that we are not going to reach the US. But going back to my home country is not an option. »

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