Enrique Lucero Vazquez, director of Tijuana’s immigration services, says about 2,000 Ukrainians are currently in Tijuana – both close to the United States border crossing and the Unidad Deportiva Benito Juarez sports complex. In recent years, the facility has been used to house Central American caravans arriving in Tijuana. Vazquez says that in January and February, an estimated 10,000 Ukrainians and 25,000 Russians arrived in Mexico, mostly by plane and on tourist visas. “After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some Ukrainians began heading to Tijuana to seek asylum from the United States,” Vazquez said. The sports complex, which opened to house Ukrainians, has a capacity of about 500 people and has showers, baths and internet access. Food, meanwhile, is provided by US nonprofits. Vazquez says between 300 and 400 Ukrainians are currently being processed by US immigration authorities every day. According to Vazquez, about 3,000 immigrants of other nationalities are in the 25 shelters in Tijuana awaiting the removal of Title 42. About 1,500 of them are from Central America and Haiti, and the other half are mostly Mexican, Vazquez said.
