Unable to Enter U.S., Haitian Refugees Get Legal Residence in Tijuana

With a process that lasts a few days, they receive their Humanitarian Visas from Mexico

By SanDiegoRed Colaborador2017-03-01T20:46:40+00:00

Many of the Haitian and African immigrants who arrived in large quantities in the last months to Tijuana, no longer want to leave this city.

Especially after President Donald Trump took office and deployed a series of anti-refugee and anti-immigrant policies (and rhetoric), leaving many refugees from Haiti and other countries out cold on the streets of Tijuana, with others being deported back to their country of origin. But thousands are also now deciding that staying legally in Mexico might be their best chance at a stable life.

Churches that have been shelters had also been the connection for immigrants to complete the process to regularize their stay. Picture by José Antonio Altamirano.

Although there is not an exact number of how many are already doing the process, in social media, especially in the Facebook group of the Strategic Committee for Humanitarian Aid in Tijuana, you can already know about several cases of immigrants who have already received the document "Visitor card for humanitarian reasons", which allows them free transit through Mexican territory.

Before, long lines were seen in the mobile office of the National Institute of Migration of the Center area to request the famous appointment for asylum in the USA, now the rows can be seen in the offices located over the Insurgentes Boulevard but to regularize and stay legally in Tijuana.

The process is not as complicated as it seems, with an appointment at the National Institute of Migration to present documents and fill out an online form where the next step is to go back and leave documents including the passport (which many of them don't have) so instead they leave a copy. This might slowdown the process since it must be verified their existence in the Embassy of Haiti in Mexico City.

The next step is to wait for a few days to receive a response from the INM, deciding if the process is valid for the applicant in their change of status so they can then submit 4 photographs where in a matter of minutes they obtain their I.D. card where they formalize their stay as a humanitarian visitor.

With this status immigrants can freely travel around the country, attend schools, open national bank accounts among other things, although they still may not perform any paid activity or formal work, according to Article 9 of the immigration law regarding humanitarian visas in Mexico.

Undoubtedly this document changes the idea of searching for the American dream to now have a "Mexican dream" and become part of the multicultural Tijuana; a city that since the beginning of its foundation has been characterized by receiving people from all over the country and now, the world.

The immigrant community that has arrived in the city has been sheltered by civil society and religious organizations who have been more concerned than the government.