“We don’t have sufficient and necessary infrastructure to adequately attend to these people, to give them a decent space,” Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum said on local radio.
At a press conference Thursday, he said he’s asking international aid organizations, including the United Nations, to step in where the Mexican federal government has failed. “They have categorically omitted and not complied with their legal obligations,” he said of the feds. “So we’re now asking them and international humanitarian aid groups to bring in and carry out humanitarian assistance.”
Gastelum also refused to dig deeper into local coffers. “I will not compromise public services,” he said. “I will not spend Tijuanans’ money, I will not bring Tijuana into debt now, in the same way we haven’t done so these past two years.”
The city estimates it’s already spent $27,000 each day to house the migrants, most of whom are staying in a local sports complex that’s been converted into a shelter. Expected to hold 3,000 migrants itself, the stadium quickly reached capacity, resulting in people spilling into the streets.