By NAN Staff Writer
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. April 18, 2017: Some 4,000 Haitians are still stuck in Tijuana, Mexico after failing to benefit from a special humanitarian parole to enter the US last September, according to Haitian actor Jimmy Jean Louis.
Jean Louis visited some of the shelters where the Haitians are struggling to survive in with actor and writer Rainn Wilson and posted the pictures with a call to action on his Twitter account Monday.
At least one of the pictures posted by Jean Louis shows hundreds of migrants at the Iglesias Quadrado sleeping on the floor in a crowded room.
The thousands of Haitians crossed the entire South America by car, bus, boat walk to get to Mexico and into the U.S. in search of a better life following Hurricane Matthews, which killed more than 500 people and left 1.4 million homeless in Haiti in October. Following the hurricane, the then Obama administration announced it would stop deporting Haitians from inside the US. But this was taken out of context and caused thousands to cross the Amazon into Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala and the whole of Mexico to end in Tijuana and wait in hope for an asylum appointment with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency or attempt to cross the border on their own.
With a new administration in power that is tougher on immigration, that door seems to have closed on them, forcing them to be stuck in limbo in Mexico.
The Mexican government stopped funding the shelters in February and church groups, including the Templo Embajadores De Jesus, SO.S. Migrante Adopt a Shelter and the San Diego non-profit Border Angels, are among those collecting donations to help the 38 Tijuana shelters struggling to feed thousands of mostly Haitian migrants and refugees.
Pastor Gustavo Bandas has welcomed thousands of Haitians and currently needs help to build better shelters for about 200 more, Louis said yesterday on Instagram. To donate, contact Bandas at 52 1 664 229 0861.
