Busloads of migrants arrive overnight in Tijuana, where shelter already is over capacity

Rafael Carranza | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Migrant caravan: More busloads of people arrive in Tijuana, Mexico Hundreds more migrants arrived to the already-crowded shelter in Tijuana late Tuesday night. The shelter is over-capacity.

TIJUANA, Mexico — The latest wave of migrants traveling through northern Mexico as part of a large caravan began arriving overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday in Tijuana, where hundreds, and possibly thousands, more migrants are expected to follow in coming days.

Several charter buses arrived just after midnight Tuesday at the Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez, the sports complex that the city opened as a makeshift shelter. It's unclear exactly how many migrants were in the latest group. But inside, there were 3,000 other migrants who had arrived in Tijuana since last week.

The municipal government opened up the Benito Juarez sports complex last Wednesday. Originally planned to hold 3,000 migrants, the latest arrivals have put the shelter over capacity.

So far, the city has not said whether they intend to open a second shelter as hundreds more migrants make their way to Tijuana.

The new arrivals are part of the same caravan that had been traveling up through Central America and Mexico over the past month. They got separated between cities in northern Mexico.

Although about 3,000 had arrived, according to estimates from Tijuana's municipal government, about 3,000 or so more for days have been in the nearby city of Mexicali, about 90 miles away.

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That group began to file out of Mexicali on Tuesday morning. But with limited transportation, many of them opted to head out on foot for a grueling 38-hour walk.

The migrants who arrived in Tijuana early Wednesday morning had been able to get rides on buses. But hundreds more remained along the highway linking the two border cities.

Those in Tijuana arrived to an overcrowded shelter, with very limited options on space. Left with little other choice, many of them settled in on the cold, damp field of the outdoor baseball stadium.

As they filed into the shelter single-file, many of the migrants carried sleeping bags, blankets, and any personal belongings they still had with them.

Many of the children, and some of the adults, had coughs. Medical personnel stationed outside the shelter said they had treated dozens of migrants, mostly for respiratory illnesses.