Hundreds of Pakistanis, Cubans, Armenians, Haitians, Ghanaians, and others trying to gain legal entry into the United States as asylum seekers are overwhelming Tijuana, Mexico shelters.
The shelters historically helped tens of thousands of Mexicans deemed illegal aliens and deported from the United States through the San Ysidro Port of Entry border crossing.
But the clientele is now a mix of foreigners and people from Mexico’s interior who travel to Tijuana to gain legal entry to the US through the asylum process.
Breitbart News reported on May 19 that U.S. head of the Border Patrol Agents’ union testified before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest panel that about 80 percent of illegal immigrants are released into the US in what he referred to as catch ad release.
Brandon Judd, the President of the National Border Patrol Council to the hearing, “We’re releasing basically everybody as long as you’re not from the country of Mexico. And even if you’re from the country of Mexico and you claim that you have a credible fear and you’re asking for asylum for one reason or another — we’re still releasing those individuals.”
As a result, huge numbers of Africa, the Caribbean, and South Asia foreigners are typically staying for two or three days in the Tijuana shelters to awaiting their turn to go through asylum questioning by U.S. border officials.
Margarita Andonaegui, co-founder of Desayunador Salesiano Padre Chava, told the San Diego Union-Tribune that the broad mix of nationalities at her 86-bed shelter and soup kitchen is unrivaled. “In my 18 years doing this, it is something that I’ve never seen.”
Catholic Priest Father Pat Murphy, Director of Casa del Migrante, added: “This is a refugee crisis. People are coming from all over the world, people who come here and say, ‘There’s thousands behind us.’”
The 45 bed Centro Madre Assunta shelter for women and children next door, says they have housed 152 individuals from outside of Mexico since May 26 and Wednesday morning. In the last few evenings they have been sheltering up to 97 people, mostly sleeping on the concrete floor.
The Colonia Libertad Salvation Army center was forced to add 50 beds to its 150-bed facility to accommodate foreign asylum seekers. Currently, they are full and turning away migrants.
There are still a large number of Mexicans fleeing regions in Mexico overwhelmed by drug cartels and organized crime that are flowing to the Tijuana border to ask for U.S. asylum.
The new flood of foreign asylum seekers streaming to the San Ysidro border crossing caught the attention of the media just before Memorial Day weekend, as hundreds of asylum seekers in line for interviews began sleeping on the sidewalks outside the gates.
In November of 2015 Breitbart News broke the story that six middle-eastern men were apprehended after illegally entering the United States in Arizona. Moreover, Breitbart predicted that the nation’s southern border would be a global pathway for illegals from Asia and North Africa.