SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — Migrant shelters in Tijuana are reporting a difficult time staying afloat as funding and donations from the U.S. dry up.
“What we know is the Trump Administration is intimidating some of our donors in the U.S. threatening to end their non-profit status,” said Sarah Soto, financial officer for the Espacio Migrante shelter. “It’s worrisome because many of our donors live in the United States.”
Soto says many facilities like hers have managed to stay open thanks to donations from north of the border, something that helped ever since former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador cut funding to shelters during his administration.
Soto said Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has not reestablished the financial help.
“Shelters’ economic and financial situation is complicated, we just saw Casa del Migrante, which is the oldest shelter in the city, going through some really difficult times forcing it to cut services and staffing,” Soto said.
Soto also mentioned President Donald Trump’s elimination of USAID, an agency that funded many organizations around the world and and one of the major donors to migrant shelters in Mexico, has further complicated matters for facilities that offer services to migrants.
“If we were busy like years prior, we’d be really hurting, but there’s not as many migrants now in need, but the lack of funding from our most reliable donors is still a concern,” she said.
Soto was asked about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security offering undocumented migrants $1,000 if they self deported, something she found “suspicious.”
“We’re not sure what’s going on, but it seems strange that they are offering money to people who self-deport,” Soto said. “We had seen notices by the United States government to people to leave on their own or through an app, but it doesn’t seem right.”
