Tag: TIJUANA

HUNDREDS OF MIGRANTS PUSH ON TO US-MEXICO BORDER BRIDGE

Hundreds of migrants push on to US-Mexico border bridge

Trump on Thursday threatened to close the border altogether

By AFP

Tijuana (Mexico) (AFP) – Tension mounted as hundreds of Central American migrants massed at a Mexican border town headed on Thursday for a bridge crossing to the United States as President Donald Trump renewed his threats to repel them.

With US helicopters hovering overhead, a group made up mostly of men headed just after midday from the shelter they have been staying at since last week to the El Chaparral bridge around a kilometer (half a mile) away in Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego, California.

Trump on Thursday threatened to close the border altogether, having previously deployed nearly 6,000 troops to erect concrete barriers and razor-wire fences to deter what he has called an “invasion.”

“If we find that it gets to a level where we are going to lose control or where people are going to start getting hurt, we will close entry into the country for a period of time until we can get it under control,” Trump told reporters, before firing a warning to Mexico.

“The whole border. I mean the whole border,” he said, adding that “Mexico will not be able to sell their cars into the United States.” 

Tensions rose at the border when a local official and a human rights activist tried to convince the migrants both of the benefits of remaining in Mexico, and to submit their US asylum requests through official channels.

“We don’t want to!” shouted the migrants before continuing on to the bridge.

“Let us cross now, we’re already desperate, we’ve left family in Honduras, we need to work,” said a man called Wilson.

Authorities in Tijuana set up a job fair in an attempt to recruit skilled workers amongst the migrants for the benefit of local companies, while Mexico’s migration agency has offered them temporary residency papers.

Some have taken advantage of the offers but others are simply determined to reach the US.

Since setting out more than a month ago, mostly from from Honduras, thousands of migrants — including many women and children — have covered about 4,400 kilometers (2,700 miles), either walking or hitchhiking, before the first groups began reaching Tijuana at the end of last week.

But there have been tensions since they started arriving at the border town, particularly in the shelter housing around 4,500 Central Americans.

The migrants are mostly fleeing poverty and unrest in Central America’s “Northern Triangle” — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where gang violence has fueled some of the highest murder rates in the world.

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‘Mexico First’? Riot police face off with protesters against US-bound ‘invaders’ in Tijuana (VIDEOS)

‘Mexico First’? Riot police face off with protesters against US-bound ‘invaders’ in Tijuana (VIDEOS)

Tijuana residents have staged a rally against migrants gathering in the Mexican border city in hopes of crossing to the US. Donald Trump supported their outrage, saying even his country is ill-prepared to survive such an invasion.

Anti-migrant sentiment is running high in Tijuana, as hundreds of locals shouting “no to the invasion” and “Mexico First”staged a protest rally on Sunday. Starting at a major traffic roundabout they marched north toward a makeshift shelter which now hosts thousands of migrants. The protesters carried placards reading “enough of uncontrolled migration” and “migrants yes, invaders no.”

Before the procession managed to reach Benito Juarez migrant camp, riot police officers were deployed to block them. Some brief scuffles followed but, according to local media, law enforcement officers managed to disperse the crowd without making any arrests.

Tensions in the city exploded last Wednesday when first clashes were reported between the newcomers and locals, that latter angry that migrants “illegally” forced their way into Mexico and now accumulate at the US border, posing a growing “security risk.” Responding to the public sentiment, Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum made clear that anyone who endangers public order will be deported.

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“No city in the world is prepared to receive this –if I’m allowed– this avalanche,” he said, during a news conference at City Hall last week.

It is a tsunami. There is concern among all citizens of Tijuana.

Not all Tijuana locals oppose the influx of asylum seekers though. Just before the Sunday anti-caravan march began, a small demonstration was held in support of the Central Americans, condemning what they call “racism” and “discrimination.”

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Some 3,200 Central American migrants had arrived in Tijuana over the past week, their last stop before attempting to cross into the United States. In the coming weeks the number of migrants in Tijuana is expected to reach 10,000 as thousands are heading to a city already stretched beyond its capacity to host the newcomers.

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President Donald Trump, who has deployed thousands of troops at the border to reinforce the frontier with Mexico, said last week that the US, just like Tijuana, is “ill-prepared” to host such a migrant “invasion” and urged the Central Americans to “go home.” Those who try to cross the border illegally “will be detained or turned away,” the US president warned in another tweet.

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