Driven by reopening, more migrants are moving to the U.S.-Mexico border, Reuters said

Author: Lizbeth Diaz

TIJUANA (Reuters) – Encouraged by news that the United States and Mexico will reopen shared land crossings, hundreds of migrants have arrived in Mexican border cities like Tijuana, believing the resettlement will make it easier for them to cross the U.S. and seek asylum.

As of Monday, the nearly 2,000-mile (3,200 km) limit will be reopened for non-essential trips after a 20-month closure to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Both countries have managed to reduce new infections and integrate border communities.

Another push for access to the United States could increase pressure on Washington to tighten the border after this year after President Joe Biden’s trial of migrants in the troubled area of ​​Central America and the Caribbean.

“I’ll try. We want to cross the border. I can’t stay in Mexico anymore. There’s a lot of violence here,” said Andrea Morales, a Guatemalan living in a temporary camp for a month. Next to the El Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana.

“Four days ago, the government took away our lights and fenced us off like animals. I believed in God, crossed paths and give my children a better life,” Morales said as his baby was nursed among eleven tents.

Local authorities angered the migrants last week when they dumped tents and other items left in the camp they have occupied since February.

‘DISINFORMATION’

Migrant advocates say many people have been misled into what it means for asylum options to restart the border.

“There is a lot of misinformation. We have explained to them that reopening the border is a cross-border paperwork, visa-free, and not reopening for people to cross and re-apply for asylum and humanitarian aid,” Jose said. Garcia, head of the Movimiento Juventud 2000 migrant shelter in Tijuana.

“They haven’t heard from us and they don’t want to wait,” he added, saying the number of migrants in the shelter has risen by a third since it was announced to reopen on October 15.

Mexicans are also arriving.

Many migrants in Tijuana said they were fleeing violence in Mexico in states like Michoacan and Guerrero, and were scheduled to cross on Monday to seek asylum.

In 2020, 9,700 Mexicans were displaced as a result of the violence, a jump of more than a third of the previous year, according to the Geneva Center for Internal Displacement Monitoring.

The pandemic, along with the rise in U.S. asylum applications, has left thousands of immigrants in Mexico waiting for a response to their requests or simply to be able to submit them.

“I never left with the intention of staying in Mexico. It’s like Honduras,” said Augusto Martinez, a Honduran who arrived in Tijuana three weeks ago with his wife and five children. “We’ll definitely try to cross.”