Haitian Influx Continues Through Tijuana, Straining Migrant Shelters Sandra Dibble - The Los Angeles Times
go to original September 9, 2016

Tijuana Shelters Help with US Immigration Backlog of Haitians (KPBS News)

With the city’s shelters full, migrant advocates in Tijuana say they are in crisis mode — and calling for more government help in coping with large numbers of Mexicans, Haitians and others petitioning for entrance to the United States.

“People are waiting in the streets,” Father Patrick Murphy, director of Tijuana’s Casa del Migrante, said in an interview late last week. “We have people outside the door.”

The 160-bed shelter, run by members of the Catholic Scalabrinian order, is one of four non-government shelters in the city that have been offering food and shelter both to deportees and migrants hoping to enter the United States, many of them Mexicans fleeing violent areas of their country. Earlier this year, the shelters started taking in unprecedented number of Haitians.

Numbers provided last week by U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed that through July 31, a total of 3,060 Haitian “inadmissibles” sought admittance to the United States through San Diego ports of entry during the first 10 months of the current fiscal year. That is more than 15 times the number seeking entry through Miami during that same period.

...For most Haitians, the ultimate destination is Miami or New York City, where there are established Haitian communities. Customs and Border Protection’s director of field operations in San Diego, Pete Flores, said some are saying they are afraid to return to Haiti, while some say they just want to find work.

Read the rest at The Los Angeles Times

Related: Tijuana Shelters Help with US Immigration Backlog of Haitians (KPBS)

Related: Africans Migrating Through Latin America Face Danger (teleSUR)

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