Tijuana mayor: Caravan influx to last at least 6 months
TIJUANA, Mexico — With about 3,000 Central American migrants having reached the Mexican border across from California and thousands more anticipated, the mayor of Tijuana said Friday that the city was preparing for an influx that will last at least six months and may have no end in sight.
Juan Manuel Gastelum said there were 2,750 migrants from the caravan in Tijuana and that estimates by Mexico’s federal government indicate the number could approach 10,000.
“No city in the world is prepared to receive this — if I’m allowed — this avalanche,” he said during a news conference at City Hall. “It is a tsunami. There is concern among all citizens of Tijuana.”
U.S. border inspectors are processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego, creating long waits. Asylum seekers register their names in a tattered notebook managed by migrants themselves that had more than 3,000 names even before the caravan arrived.