Tecate shelter squeeze
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20041224-9...
A bigger facility is being built, but there's a matter of funding
By Anna Cearley
December 24, 2004
TECATE ? As night fell, a group of men gathered around this city's small migrant shelter.
The men let their backpacks fall to the ground and dusted off their clothes after a day of wandering through town or working odd jobs. Inside, nuns
who operate the shelter chanted prayers as they stirred pots of beans and sauces. The soft scent wafted through the doors, which the nuns would open
at 5:30.
Over the past 10 years, Tecate has struggled to provide enough room at its migrant shelter, where many dream of crossing illegally into the United
States.
The shelter has space for just 40 people each night. When that is reached, they doze on the dining room floor.
A solution lies just a few miles away, where construction workers are building a much larger facility that will include a dormitory equipped with bunk
beds to house about 200 men, and a separate room for about 30 women and children.
Just as U.S. communities grapple with their homeless problems, Mexican border cities such as Tecate are faced with finding room for thousands of
people who arrive from throughout Mexico and other parts of the world.
"We want to provide more capacity for the migrants so they can either continue their trip or return to their place of origin," said Antonio Lopez
Anduaga, president of the shelter's board of directors.
"As it is, we can only let them spend a short amount of time here to make room for other people."
The burden to house the people has shifted to Tecate and Mexicali, where more are crossing since U.S. authorities stepped up patrols along the San
Diego-Tijuana border 10 years ago.
Not all the migrants use the shelters. But the shelters in Mexicali and Tecate each provide room for 10,000 or more people a year.
In comparison, the number of people in the Tijuana migrant shelter has dropped dramatically from 12,000 annually in the late 1980s to about 5,000 now,
according to shelter officials there.
A majority of those are people who have been deported after living in the United States for many years.
"Their situation is more problematic because they come here disillusioned after living there for many years and they find it hard to have left behind
their family and homes," said Tijuana shelter administrator Gilberto Mart?nez Amaya.
The Mexicali shelter, which focuses on those who are heading to the United States for the first time, is also considering expanding.
"We want to provide better services," said Santo Tom?s Reyes Hernandez, who oversees the shelter, which has room only for men. "We need to make the
bathrooms larger, and to find a place for the women to stay, rather than have them go somewhere else."
Besides the three main shelters along the Baja California border, several others have been set up to provide lodging for women and children.
But the three shelters continue to serve the majority of migrants, who are men. Sometimes they arrive thirsty, or with injuries from trying to cross
through dangerous desert and mountain areas between Tecate and Mexicali.
The Tecate shelter ? Casa del Migrante de Nuestra Se?ora de Guadalupe ? takes people to the local Red Cross.
The Mexicali shelter has a medical office, but takes the seriously injured to a local hospital, where the bill is usually footed by the Mexican
federal government, said Norma de Reynoso, the shelter's medical outreach worker.
The three main shelters typically receive financial assistance from government agencies, but they rely heavily on donations.
The new Tecate shelter is being built with about $85,000 of government funds, according to board members. The state donated the land, said board
president Lopez.
More money needed
But the board members say they don't have enough money to complete the women's wing and office space. They are also seeking kitchen appliances, beds
and other donations to furnish the men's facility so it can be operating in the next few months.
In the meantime, the migrants gather at the older building in downtown Tecate. Members of a religious order manage the day-to-day affairs. The board
of directors ? composed of community members ? oversees a monthly budget of about $3,000, said board member Livio Angeli Soriano.
The nearby upscale Rancho La Puerta spa provides some of the vegetables and soup. The nuns tend to the migrants' spiritual needs.
"They arrive here with a lot of emotions, and sometimes they are discouraged and don't know what to do because they are trying to cross and they can't
cross," said Sister Gloria de la Cruz, tasting a sauce for flavor. "Sometimes, they have been robbed, or the families are split while trying to get
across."
For some, the trip to Tecate has been a long one.
Juan Manuel Rodriguez, 48, is from the southern state of Chiapas, and it took him a month to get to the border by sneaking onto 15 different trains.
He wants to cross illegally into the United States so he can work in agriculture in Oregon. But he's been caught and deported three times over the
past five months, he said.
He said he has stayed at the shelters in Tijuana and Mexicali, but usually runs out of time because they also limit how long people can stay.
More space
Tecate shelter administrators expect that people will be able to stay longer at the new shelter, because it will have more space. Currently, shelter
residents can stay a maximum of three days if they aren't working, and 10 days if they are working.
Businesses regularly swing by the shelter looking for temporary laborers.
"It's not a lot of time, and I think I would need about a month," said Rodriguez, of Chiapas.
Once their time runs out, some of the people rent cheap rooms with other travelers, or end up sleeping in the streets until they can continue their
journeys.
Other people waiting at the shelter have no desire to go to the United States.
"No way am I going there," said Efra?n Monreal, 36, who made about $5.50 a day working in construction in his hometown of Santa Ana, Sonora. He
expects to make more money in Tecate, he said, where his brother used to pocket $23 a day doing the same work.
To get here, Monreal had sold his wide-brimmed hat for about $2 to pay for part of his trip. When his money ran out, he hitched a ride with someone
who suggested he stay at the Tecate shelter.
"In the United States, there is a lot of pressure to have things that you can't have," he said. "When people return from there to my hometown they
come with big campers and trucks and stuff and they end up spending a lot of money and selling it all so they can pay to go back. I just want to earn
what I need."
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