Migrants in Tijuana vaccinated at camp, shelters
Baja California Secretary of Health allocated more than 1,300 vaccines from the Pfizer laboratory to inoculate those in different shelters
Hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers waiting at the Tijuana border were vaccinated Tuesday against COVID-19 by local health authorities.
The Baja California Secretary of Health allocated hundreds of Pfizer vaccines for migrants who have been staying at a migrant camp near the El Chaparral border crossing, as well as at seven shelters in Tijuana.
On the first day, nearly 800 migrants were vaccinated, health officials said. On Wednesday, the vaccination continued at migrant shelters.
“As Governor Jaime Bonilla has said: Baja California is a sanctuary for migrants, and we are going to vaccinate everyone,” said the Secretary of Health Alonso Pérez Rico after touring a vaccination clinic set up at El Chaparral camp.
To date more than 4,000 migrants of different nationalities have been vaccinated in Baja California.
Although several migrants had gone to other vaccination points in recent weeks, Tuesday was the first time authorities opted to take the vaccine directly to the El Chaparral, where it is estimated that more than 1,200 are staying. The only requirement was that they be 18 years of age or older, Pérez Rico said.
Santa Elena Morales, 39, from Honduras, said she had not tried to get vaccinated elsewhere before because she thought that not having proper documentation would be make her ineligible.
She said she was very grateful for the vaccine, given that she has been living in the camp for two months with her husband and baby daughter. She acknowledged that since her arrival she had been afraid of being infected. “Now I feel safer,” she added.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 200 migrants have been infected by COVID-19 in Tijuana; eight of them have died, health authorities said.
Many migrants agreed that one of the reasons they wanted to get vaccinated was to be ready if the U.S. requested the vaccine as part of asylum.
“I’m afraid of being sent back,” said Héctor Cruz, 24, an asylum seeker from Honduras. “Now that I’m vaccinated, I’m more prepared for whatever is next in the process.”
Under a process that allows a limited number of vulnerable asylum seekers into the U.S., a negative COVID-19 test must be shown as part of the requirements, noted Soraya Vázquez, deputy director of Al Otro Lado in Tijuana, a binational legal services organization that assists asylum seekers.
President Biden has come under intense pressure from some Democrats to lift the rule known as Title 42
Vázquez acknowledged it could be a challenge for migrants to return for their second shot.
“One of the things we face when we start some kind of program with the migrant population is precisely mobility,” she said. “Migrants do not last long in the same space.”
Baja California health authorities agreed. “That’s why we emphasize to them to keep their proof of vaccination and to come back or go to any vaccination center for the second dose,” Pérez Rico said.
While migrants waited Tuesday after being vaccinated, nurses passed by with a loudspeaker urging them to return for their second dose.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is preparing to begin offering vaccines to migrants in U.S. custody along the Mexican border, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The vaccines will be provided to those facing deportation as well as to those likely to be released into the U.S. pending a court hearing, according a U.S. official cited by the Washington Post.
Vaccines will be provided to migrants facing deportation as well as those likely to be released into the U.S. pending a court hearing
Baja California received a vaccine shipment to resume first-dose vaccinations among those 18 and over. Before this week’s shipment, the vaccines arriving to the state were destined for pending second doses and pregnant women.
As of Tuesday, 75 percent of the eligible population in Baja California had been fully vaccinated, officials said.
Pérez Rico reiterated that the vaccine will be available to anyone arriving or living in Tijuana, regardless of their nationality.
“We are going to give everyone the opportunity of getting vaccinated, just as we would like to be given the same opportunity wherever we go.”
A high-ranking member of an Arellano Félix Organization remnant cell was gunned down near UTC. Then a man who Mexican authorities say is a reputed leader was shot in Chula Vista.
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