City officials in Tijuana, Mexico, have opened a sports complex to accommodate the overcrowding of Ukrainian migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border seeking asylum in the United States.
Enrique Lucero Vazquez, director of Tijuana’s immigration services, says about 2,000 Ukrainians are currently in Tijuana – both near the border with the United States and at the Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez.
In recent years, the facility has been used to accommodate caravans from Central America arriving in Tijuana.
Vazquez says that in January and February, about 10,000 Ukrainians and 25,000 Russians arrived in Mexico, mostly by plane and on tourist visas.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, some Ukrainians began making their way to Tijuana to seek refuge in the United States, Vazquez said.
The sports complex, which was open to Ukrainians, has a capacity of about 500 people and has showers, bathrooms and internet access. Meanwhile, food is provided by American non-profit organizations.
Vazquez says between 300 and 400 Ukrainians are currently being processed by US immigration authorities every day.
According to Vazquez, about 3,000 migrants from other nationalities are in 25 Tijuana shelters, waiting for Title 42 to be repealed. About 1,500 of them are from Central America and Haiti, and the other half are mostly Mexican, Vazquez said.
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