International refugees hit wall at border

It is a humble place where “Lucas” bides his time and struggles to survive.

Humble is generous.

Lucas (a pseudonym) and other refugees from some of the most violent and desperate parts of the world are glad to be alive, even if they are huddled under torn flappy tarps, cardboard lean-tos and disintegrating sheets of plastic in a dusty, malodorous camp hard against the United States border in Tijuana.

Lucas had the misfortune to be born a gay man in a deeply homophobic region of Africa. His life was in danger daily, he said, and he knew his existence would be brutal and short if he did not flee.

“I want to go to the U.S. because there is liberty,” he said. “In Africa there are too many problems.”

“Maria,” a young mother from El Salvador, is huddled not far from Lucas with her two children. She and her shattered family traveled on a bus for 10 days before arriving in Tijuana. She spent her entire life savings of $500, she said.

“We are cold, we did not have enough money for food,” she said. “We are hoping to be able to go to a shelter soon.”

Maria said she and her children had no choice but to flee.

“We did not want to leave our country, we will miss it, but the problem we are running from is the violence and the gangs,” she said. “(Drug criminals) wanted to force my son to join a gang, so we left and came here.”

Maria said she hoped she would be able to reunite with her brother in the United States. She said she would like to find a job so she could work hard and provide better opportunities for her sons than she had in El Salvador.

“In the United States there are opportunities for my children,” she said. “They could go to school and become educated.”

Her family has received a mixed reception in Tijuana.

“Some people have a good heart and others are scared of us,” she said.

Tijuana refugees include people fleeing civil war and ethnic cleansing in African, narcotraficantes in Central America, political unrest and starvation in South America, and Islamic terrorism and Sharia Law in the Middle East and Europe. American State Department workers are taking in about 40 people per day to evaluate their cases and determine if they are eligible for political asylum. Hundreds await their opportunity to be interviewed.

Not everyone languishing under the hazy Tijuana sun will be granted asylum. American policy does not currently consider economic strife a situation that qualifies refugees for political or human rights asylum. Many of the Tijuana refugees fall into that category and are denied entry.

Alejandro Fonseca of the Salvation Army helps drive refugees from the Tijuana squatters camps to appointments in the United States and to shelters in Mexico. He said the numbers are overwhelming and the situation is sad and desperate.

“This is the hardest part for us, being forced to choose who goes and who stays,” he said. “We can’t take them all.”

In the Salvation Army shelter people are fed, can shower and are able to rest in safety for a little while before they are returned to the camps. Humanitarian groups like Tijuana Comida No Bombas help provide meals and collect donations. It is never enough, said Fonseca, but it helps.

Tijuana’s impromptu refugee camps and their people need a great deal of help.