Migrants from Brazil and Venezuela have been arriving in large groups in recent days in Tijuana, in northern Mexico, some intending to disperse along other stretches of border with the United States, and others with the objective of staying in the municipality, neighboring San Diego, in the US state of California.
This Thursday alone, 150 people, including Brazilians and Venezuelans, were sent by Mexican authorities to a hostel, where they stayed for about two hours and then left.
According to the leader and founder of the hostel, José María García, the directors of the National System for the Integral Development of Families (DIF) in the Mexican state of Baja California asked him to make their facilities a point of reference for people in transit.
That’s how the group of migrants suddenly arrived. Women, men and children stayed at the place just to get a meal and a short rest, and then began to order taxis of their own.
“These 150 people arrived and then left in various taxis that they themselves asked to circulate around the city, and told them they were going to stay in some hotels and apartments they had booked,” said García.
He also said that, on Wednesday night, 45 Brazilians arrived at the same hostel and fed themselves, and then left for other locations.
García said that he could not understand them because of the language difference, but when he spoke to a group of Venezuelans, they told him they intended to go to the cities of Tecate and Mexicali, which are also on the US border, while others they wanted to stay in Tijuana.
“The community (of migrants) doesn’t want to stay in the hostels. They are settling in the city (of Tijuana). We don’t know why they’re here, as we can’t talk to anyone,” he told Efe.
Five days ago, the National Guard and the National Institute of Migration stopped a transport truck in which 75 migrants were hiding, 58 from Brazil, 16 from Venezuela and one from Portugal.
The migrants were turned over to authorities and, according to reports, were on their way to a hostel in Playas de Tijuana.
The region has experienced an unprecedented wave of migration since the beginning of the year.
More than 1.66 million immigrants who tried to cross the southern border of the United States illegally were detained by US agents between October 2020 and September this year, according to data released in October by the Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP, in its initials in English). This is the highest number of arrests on record on the US-Mexico border.
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