Tijuana mayor on arriving migrant caravan: ‘It’s a tsunami’

About 2,000 members of the migrant caravan have now reached their destination in Tijuana, Mexico, just a few miles south of San Diego. But the town’s mayor and many residents have not been thrilled by their arrival. Friday, Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum called the influx a “tsunami” and referred to some of the migrants as “bums.” From the San Diego Tribune:

“It’s a tsunami,” he said during a news conference at City Hall. “This situation is purposely orchestrated, with the intention of harming Tijuana,” he added, without specifying who might be behind the group.

By Friday, Tijuana police had detained seven caravan members — six Hondurans and a Guatemalan — according to Marco Antonio Sotomayor, Tijuana’s public safety secretary, who said they will be turned over to Mexican immigration authorities for deportation.

Two were inebriated and fighting each other in Playas de Tijuana; three were arrested at the city’s newly opened shelter in the Zona Norte for smoking marijuana, and two were arrested for consuming illegal drugs across town in Camino Verde, one of the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods.

The mayor is calling for a referendum, one that would allow city residents to express their concerns about the large number of caravan members ending up in the city. He has also suggested checkpoints at the city’s entrance, but on Friday called them “an extreme” measure suggesting that he was not yet prepared to take such a step.
But Gastelum himself has come under much criticism from migrant advocates for his comments made in an interview Thursday on Milenio TV, a Mexican national television network, where he complained about the arrival of the caravan members: “Some of them are a bunch of bums, smoking marijuana in the street, and attacking our families in Playas de Tijuana,” the mayor said. “Who is leading them?”…USA Today reports Mayor Gastélum also said, “No city in the world is prepared to receive this … avalanche.” But it’s not just the mayor who is upset. Some local residents unhappy that the migrants are showing up and demanding services and turning parts of the town into ...

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