Given the possible increase in mass deportations of migrants, the municipal authorities of Tijuana They are preparing to receive up to 30 thousand nationals. This occurs in the context of stricter policies in the United States towards migrants, which has raised alarms at the border.
The main strategy includes the provision of an industrial warehouse as a temporary shelter for deportees. In the first stage, it is planned to serve 10 thousand people, but a maximum capacity is planned for 30 thousand if necessary.
“We are preparing to receive up to 30 thousand people, according to the first announcements that were made,” explained Arnulfo León, Secretary of Government at the Tijuana City Council.
However, the conditioning of the industrial warehouse is not yet finished. Authorities are evaluating security measures and compliance with human rights guidelines to ensure that the facilities are adequate.
José Luis Jiménez, director of Civil Protection of Tijuana, commented that the initial design presented for the shelter did not comply with safety standards. “The ship issue is fine, but the initial project did not meet safety standards. Now adjustments are being made, and a decision will be made soon,” he explained to local media.
Meanwhile, The authorities have ruled out the use of public spaces, such as sports units, except in cases of emergency.
José Luis Pérez Canchola, director of Migrant Assistance in Tijuana, assured that the municipality has immediate capacity to care for deportees in the event of an increase in repatriations. “The Carmen Serdán federal shelter has capacity for a thousand people in excellent conditions, even with an Army kitchen. In addition, the city’s shelters have 1,500 places available,” he explained.
Protests and complaints against abuses
In parallel with the efforts to enable shelters, the situation in Tijuana has generated tensions. Activists promigrants They held a protest yesterday, burning a piñata with the figure of a municipal police officer, as a sign of rejection of the abuses committed against migrants.
Sergio Tamai, director of Ángeles Sin Fronteras, publicly denounced that security agents have robbed, beaten and violated migrants, both foreigners and displaced Mexicans. “The police take advantage of the weak, but they don’t mess with drug traffickers because they are colluding,” he said.
The protesters, gathered in front of the municipal building, demanded an end to practices that have put the physical and social integrity of people in transit at risk.
Agencies
Authorities overlap abuses
- “Enough of so many abuses,” claimed activist Sergio Tamai, who assured that the authorities and institutions themselves are the ones that “overlap and promote these practices,” which is why he demanded that they address the migrants’ complaints.
- He added that the call for attention “is also for the State Attorney General’s Office, so that it receives the complaints of theft that migrants file against the police officers themselves, so that they can be punished.”
- The activist also accused that some police chiefs are the ones who order migrants to be robbed, since “there is talk of quotas that they have to deliver”, a practice that he knows very well is carried out because it was part of the bureaucracy.
CT
