Many Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion of their country have traveled to the US-Mexico border in the hope that authorities will let them in so they can reunite with American relatives or friends.
People are sprawled on blankets and lawn chairs next to overloaded suitcases on a patch of grass near the international port of entry. Some sleep in tents and under tarps. American volunteers wearing fluorescent vests – some Ukrainian-Americans who traveled to Tijuana after hearing about the arrival of refugees – are collecting names on a handwritten waiting list to track arrivals.
While some 600 Ukrainians are camping near the border entrance, about 500 others are staying in hotels in the city, said Enrique Lucero, Tijuana’s director of migration affairs, citing the list kept by the volunteers. About 40% of people are children, he added.
Lucero said about 100 Ukrainians are allowed to cross into the United States every day. US Customs and Border Protection said data on the number of Ukrainians entering the United States in March would be available in the coming weeks.
The number of people on the southwestern border is still small compared to the more than 3.8 million Ukrainians who have fled to neighboring countries in Europe since the February 24 invasion, which the Russian government calls a “military operation”. special”.
In response to the exodus – Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II – US President Joe Biden last week pledged to accept some 100,000 Ukrainians into the United States through various legal channels.
But some families desperate to leave have had to cross a series of countries to reach the southern border, after being refused US visas or being told to wait in US embassies abroad.
While Ukrainians and Russians have been arriving at the US-Mexico border since before the conflict broke out, now people are arriving “very quickly”, said Julia Neusner, a lawyer with the nonprofit advocacy group Human Rights First, based in New York. York. [L2N2V61WR]
On average, Ukrainians wait about a day from when they are put on the list compiled by volunteers to when they can cross over to the United States, Neusner said.
Two weeks ago, according to a Reuters witness, about 15 Ukrainians a day arrived at the Tijuana border and were immediately allowed to cross.
RUSSIANS, OTHER MIGRANTS LEFT BEHIND
As Ukrainians are driven into the United States, US border agents have told Russians, Mexicans, Central Americans and migrants from other countries to stay put, citing a border deportation policy dating back to the ‘time of the pandemic, known as Title 42, which closed the US-Mexico border to most asylum seekers.
On Friday, the Biden administration announced it would end the deportation policy at the end of May, as US health officials said it was no longer needed to protect public health.
Inna Levien, 42 – from Belarus – said she and other Russian-speaking members of her Orange County, Calif., moms’ group traveled to Tijuana earlier this week to help Ukrainian refugees, including many speak Russian.
She said there is no running water at a local bus stop where women and children are sleeping and children are getting sick.
“Vomiting, diarrhoea, they’re so stressed they’re dehydrated,” she said. “They have this turmoil inside.”
A six-year-old girl told Levien that she was praying for her father who stayed behind to defend Ukraine because it was his “job” to be its “guardian angel.”