Homeless Encampment Removed in Federal Cleanup Along the Tijuana River Sandra Dibble - The San Diego Union-Tribune
go to original August 6, 2013

A record number of undocumented illegal immigrants were deported from the United States last year. Most of the 410 thousand migrants were Mexican. And many ended up in places like Tijuana on Mexico's border with the US. As Adam Raney reports, some are living in tunnels, hoping to return to families they left behind. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

TIJUANA — Mexican soldiers joined forces with federal police and municipal law enforcement authorities on Monday to remove encampments of homeless from the concrete bed of the Tijuana River. The effort is part of a $3.2-million federal cleanup that includes removing people, trash and vegetation from the stretch of the river near the U.S. border by downtown Tijuana.

A total of 90 people were taken into custody on charges of vagrancy and other city code violations, according to a statement from municipal police. One person was detained in possession of nine doses of crystal methamphetamine. The operation started at 8:15 a.m. and lasted four hours, focusing on the stretch of the channel between Tijuana's Hospital General and the mouth of the river.

The effort is funded through Mexico's Interior Ministry as part of a program known as the National Program for the Prevention of Violence and Crime. The river's homeless population has included growing numbers of U.S. deportees.

See the original at The San Diego Union-Tribune

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!