SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — As a way to limit the number of people moving into a migrant camp just south of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the city of Tijuana announced plans to build a fence around the perimeter of the camp.
It’s estimated that 40 percent of migrants living at the campsite are children, according to a city of Tijuana social agency. One estimate places the campsite’s total population at 1,500 people.
People began moving in more than a month ago when President Biden announced that asylum-seekers who were stuck in Mexico under the Migrant Protection Protocols program would be allowed to once again enter the U.S.
But many others, people without asylum cases pending, began moving into the camp under the impression the border will eventually open to all migrants seeking asylum, even those who have never signed on to the program.
It’s their way of getting in line, they say.
Camp residents like Nicolas Diego from Guatemala believe it’s going to happen eventually.
“I’m getting frustrated because I have two children I have to care about,” he said.
Diego arrived in Tijuana about three months ago and moved into the camp four weeks ago.
“President Biden said he was going to let us in, he needs to keep his promise as president and as a man, it’s like he’s going back on it and like ‘I don’t want them anymore.'”
Like the others, Diego doesn’t have access to showers and bathrooms. The nearest facilities are on private property where businesses charge the migrants for access.
In spite of the hardships, Diego and others say they will stick it out for as long as it takes.
Most of the campsite actually sits on federal land, but the tents and tarps have started to infringe on city property and residents are not happy.
Tijuana city officials have said for weeks they are concerned with the size of the camp and the possibility of diseases setting in.
A few of the migrants at the camp told Border Report they are not happy with Tijuana’s plans to build a fence around the campsite, saying they are being treated “like cattle.”
“I’m not going to talk about that, all I care about is going to the other side legally,” Diego said.
Diego says if they don’t get a chance to cross the border, they will seek another option.
“If they don’t give us a chance I think we’re going to choose second option which is jumping the border.”
