Mireya Cuellar
Correspondent
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, January 22, 2025, p. 7
Tijuana, BC., As a result of my statements in various media, I was accused of exaggerating and lying.
assured human rights defender José Luis Pérez Canchola, the only Mexican official who yesterday approached migrants devastated by the cancellation of the CBP One program, when announcing his resignation as director of Migrant Assistance for the municipality of Tijuana.
In interviews, Pérez Canchola has always raised the need to provide better care to the population in transit, as well as the effective coordination of the three levels of government in favor of undocumented immigrants.
He stated that the Secretary General of the Government accused him of exaggerating and lying and asked him to sign his resignation. which I had already written and signed based on my convictions in defense of human rights
he said in a statement.
In a bulletin it was announced that the mayor, Ismael Burgueño, appointed Nivia Kareli Ruiz Berumen as office manager of the Migrant Assistance Directorate on Monday night, replacing Pérez Canchola.
His last activity as an official was to convince some 200 migrants who were clinging to staying at the El Chaparral border crossing that the best thing was to go sleep at the Carmen Serdán shelter – the only one in the government – because they could not do anything about the decision. of Trump and temperatures of five degrees were expected.
Activists on social networks questioned the dismissal of the person who always cared for migrants, including the abuse of personnel from the National Migration Institute.
In this context, the El Chaparral gate on this border was not opened yesterday for migrants, although there were a few of them. Nothing compared to Monday’s movement. Three, four, five families wanted to see with their own eyes that the door, through which they had an appointment on Tuesday, remained closed. The waves of sand and dust raised by the Santa Ana winds convince the most reluctant to look for a shelter.
Man does not have the last word, God does.
says a foreigner, who, confused, seeks an answer to Donald Trump’s decisions: I had an appointment today. The United States government gave it to me, how did it disappear?
.
Although they are few, they continue to arrive at the border crossing where the only information is a sign with information about the shelters where they can find temporary refuge. Ricardo, from Michoacán, who was waiting for his CBP One appointment to cross today with his children (US citizens because they were born there and passed without their father), will have to wait to join his family.
