By Lizbeth Diaz
TIJUANA, Mexico, Sept 30 (Reuters) – As thousands of Haitians were detained, deported or expelled from a camp on Mexico’s border with Texas last week, many others traveled west to the border city of Tijuana, with the hope to prevent an offensive aimed at stemming the rising tide of migrants.
Paying thousands of dollars and avoiding popular routes, the newcomers to Tijuana have turned to the help of other Haitians who arrived five years ago on the doorstep of the United States, during another spike in migration.
Contact with them, including some with local businesses, has smoothed the road north, according to more than two dozen travelers who spoke to Reuters.
Since July, that network has also helped some Haitians cross into the United States, they said.
“Thank God, we arrived,” said Alexandre Guerby, a 26-year-old who recently arrived in Tijuana with his wife after a month-long trip from Chile, where the couple lived and had a daughter.
“Now I feel much safer,” he added, highlighting the help of other Haitians to get to Tijuana.
Last week, Mexico collaborated with the United States to clear a makeshift camp of several thousand Haitians that emerged between Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, and Del Río, Texas. Many had come from Chile or Brazil.
Guerby’s family is among hundreds who have been arriving in the city across from San Diego this month, according to newcomers and migrant shelter operators.
His journey follows in the footsteps of his predecessors who first fled a major earthquake in 2010 in Haiti and chronic poverty in South America. Then many moved north en masse to the United States in 2016 as the Brazilian economy deteriorated.
Several Haitians came with children born in Chile, expressing the belief that it would make it easier for them to enter the United States. Chilean citizens can enter the North American country for up to 90 days with a visa waiver.
Settled in various parts of Tijuana, some Haitians work in restaurants and factories, while others run businesses ranging from cell phone stores to car washes, landscaping, plumbing and interior decorating, residents and local advertising say.
“We have reached up to 300 Haitians,” said Juan Torres, head of human resources for Prime Wheel, a company dedicated to the production of wheels for the main automotive brands.
Most Haitians in Tijuana are wary of making their achievements public so that it does not cause them problems with immigration authorities or attract the attention of organized crime.
Diverson Pierre, an industrial painter who works at the wheel plant where about 60 of his compatriots currently work, said he arrived in Tijuana in 2017 with the intention of going to the United States.
“But seeing that people have very good treatment with us, I decided to stay here,” he said. “My goal was to get a job and here I got it.”
Reuters spoke to more than 20 Haitians and Mexicans in Tijuana who said they were advising newcomers where to stay or had offered them rooms to rent themselves.
“They communicate with each other in an extraordinary way, they all pull evenly,” said José García, director of the Youth 2000 shelter in the city. “They have the phone in their hand all the time and they are always informed about how things are moving at the border.”
Wilner Metelus, a Haitian who heads the advocacy group Citizen Committee for the Defense of Naturalized and Afro-Mexicans, said previous arrivals had shown the latest influx of Haitians how to avoid official raids and move forward.
Newcomer Guerby also wants to head to the United States, but first plans to work in Mexico to replenish his depleted savings, having spent thousands of dollars traveling north.
“MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE”
Fearful of being deported home or sent back to southern Mexico, or even Guatemala, Haitian migrants said they travel in small groups to avoid detection.
Sometimes that even meant traveling in cars or taxis so that you could avoid authorities by avoiding main roads.
“Everything along the way was much more expensive because we had no papers,” said Astride Petit, a 25-year-old Haitian.
Migrants sometimes had to pay up to 500 pesos ($ 25) for sections that normally cost between 80 and 100 pesos, Petit said. Still, the added cost made the trips safer, he said.
Other Haitians were able to travel through Mexico as tourists, despite lacking the necessary documents. Some showed Reuters bus tickets they had bought to travel north from the eastern city of Poza Rica.
In contrast to the mass arrival of Haitians in Tijuana in 2016, many have now arrived by dropper with the help of “coyotes” or guides, who take them directly to pensions and apartments, making them less visible, the heads of five shelters for migrants.
That has also made it more difficult to estimate how many Haitians there are in Tijuana, local officials say.
Tijuana has long been an important avenue for migrant smuggling to the United States, and there is great sympathy for Haitians in some quarters.
“Our experience in Tijuana is that they are hard workers, they should be given a chance,” said Rubén Iturriaga, a local hairdresser who said he had many Haitian clients.
“We Mexicans are also immigrants, we are going to the United States and that is why we should not close the door on them,” he added.
Baja California, the state where Tijuana is located, has traditionally been one of the fastest growing in Mexico, and local Labor Secretary Luis Algorri said Haitians are welcome.
“Here we are a sanctuary for migrants,” he said. “We are open to them coming onboard quickly with a 25,000 job listing in the waterfront (jobs).”
(1 dollar = 20.0490 Mexican pesos)
(Edited by Dave Graham and Alistair Bell; edited in Spanish by Noé Torres)