“About this moment in Tijuana, about 1,500 Ukrainians live there,” he said. Enrique Lucero, director of migrant affairs for in city. “We had an unexpected influx in in past four days, mainly because after the conflict we began to see arrivals as of March 11,” and numbers of people since then, the number of arrivals has risen significantly, Lucero said.
Inna Levien, who life in Orange County, California butand is part of but group lead volunteer activities help Ukrainians at the border, told CNN number of Ukrainians have quadrupled in in past three days.
Lucero told CNN that while he expects all migrants to enter the US, US authorities have been slow to process them, which is why so many people gathered.
“They are processing like 100, 150 or even 200 a day and it takes almost three hours to process them,” Lucero said. “This reason why we saw this mini-camp on the border.”
CNN reached out to the State Department and US Customs and Border Protection, but received no response on Saturday.
Giving a little relief
Levien volunteer group — which the made up of california mothers who met on Facebook — provided to arriving families with essentials such as food, blankets, tents and toys to keep them safe children busy.
Those who are financially able to stay in hotels that cost about $40-60 a night, Levien said.
group also helps by putting people arrival at the border on but list and giving them numbers so they won’t have to stay in line all the time while they wait for entry — a wait that may take more than 24 hours.
But city of Tijuana has also played an important role in Relieving things a bit, Levien said: city recently converted a bus stop into a temporary shelter, and network of churches stepped up to help house families who are waiting for their turn to handle.
city is an also working on a transformation sports object to a temporary shelter, Lucero said.
“We were told that about 500 migrants would arrive on these next flights, so that during the course it will increase to two thousand of day,” he said.
CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.
.
