Tijuana installs fence around El Chaparral migrant camp

On Thursday, October 28 120 policemen and a contingent from the municipal welfare department showed up at El Chaparral migrant camp and put up a chain-link fence around the tents. This was part of an order of Mayor Montserrat Caballero to conduct a census and create credentials for every camp inhabitant.

The plan was announced two weeks ago by the mayor, but nobody expected it to happen at night. It was 8 pm when the city hall’s workers started removing tents and trashing belongings of migrants that weren’t there.

Ana, a Honduran pregnant woman present, said that at first they thought they were about to be evicted because they saw so many policemen. “That night we couldn’t even sleep because of the fear we had. They threw away the belongings of people who were working. When they came back later all their things were gone, their papers and all.”

After the first census at 11 pm construction workers arrived to install the fence that surround the 180 square meters. According to the police department's director Rafael Vazquez, there were four men trying to drive people against the police but without success.

Ana said that actually none of the real inhabitants protested because they were told if they would not stay in their spots the authorities would remove their tents. “The ones that were present just stayed with our children expecting not to be evicted. On one hand, I think is good because children are not playing in the streets, but right now the environment is pretty tense; it looks like we are imprisoned.”

The census showed that 53.6 percent of the inhabitants are Mexican nationals; one of those is Oscar Hernandez who comes from Mexico City fleeing due to the insecurity her family was exposed to.

“This is the best place we could find because we have no relatives here. We are not here because we want to. Even me as a Mexican I have felt discrimination to be migrant, especially from the police. I think because of the insecurity this is a good measure, but I personally feel trapped. They are putting us in cages as if we were animals, and we are all human beings here.”

Mayor Montserrat Caballero said that these measures were taken because a month ago there was a rumor of a girl's disappearance. Due to the lack of population control in the camp they were unable to find out who the girl was or if the disappearance actually happened. The mayor asserted that there are four minors pregnant in the camp. The camp migrants said that was a rumor that the government is using to legitimize the fencing and census.