TIJUANA (Border Report) — Shelters in Tijuana continue to be inundated with migrants arriving in this city on a daily basis, including some who were part of the “Remain In Mexico” program.
Officially known as Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP, the program forced thousands of people to wait out their asylum cases south of the border in cities such as Tijuana.
Recently, though, more and more migrants, including those who are part of the program, have been given permission to cross the border into the United States for various humanitarian reasons, such as illnesses or because they’ve become victims of crime.
That and Thursday’s Supreme Court decision to allow Biden Administration to end MPP is welcome news to migrants like Yessenia.
“It’s very good, you won’t have migrants risking their lives with all the dangers in this city,” she said in Spanish.
Yessenia, who is from El Salvador, has been waiting for eight months in Tijuana.
“There’s some who have been waiting up to two years who have not gotten a chance to cross, some lose hope and start working, then they want to start over and it means more time,” she said.
Those who operate the saturated shelters in Tijuana also see this ruling as a ray of hope.
“Once again, hope returns for migrants who will cross and won’t be returned to Mexican territory,” said Jose Luis Garcia, who leads a support group for migrants south of the border.
“It has been extremely difficult for people, for the shelters that have to take care of an entire community of migrants who often fall prey to crime and violence in Tijuana,” he said. “Hopefully, this changes soon.”