By Gabriela Minjares / La Verdad Juárez
CIUDAD JUÁREZ – Authorities from the city’s civil protection and emergency management agency since Monday have been coordinating and installing a camp that will temporarily house Mexican migrants who are deported from the United States under the President Donald Trump administration.
The tents will be installed in the area known as El Punto at the Parque Chamizal next to Estadio Benito Juárez (near the Bridge of the Americas), with the first of the cargo trucks carrying materials necessary to set up the camp arriving Monday afternoon. The tents are expected to be ready in three to four days.
Sergio Rodríguez, director of the city’s Civil Protection Department, said crews assessed the area to ensure the planning included evacuation routes and safety measures.
According to official data, five camps will be erected in the state of Chihuahua – three in Juárez and two in Ojinaga – to offer temporary stays to Mexican deportees.
Rodríguez said four tents measuring 160-by-100 feet each will be installed at El Punto, as well as restrooms, showers, a dining room and a logistics room. An independent power supply will be hooked up to provide heating, he added.
The tents will accommodate up to 5,000 people, and are expected to provide only temporary shelter – from three to four days – while migrants move out of the area, Rodríguez said.
“At the end of the day, they are Mexican citizens, they have all the same rights as us and it is our obligation to provide them safety,” he said.
The Juárez municipal government will be in charge of the camps’ operations, while security will be the responsibility of the Secretariat of National Defense.
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Trump’s executive orders on immigration
The camp is being established in response to one of a slew of executive orders signed by Trump since he officially took office Monday to crack down on immigration, including declaring a national emergency at the southern border that allows for the deployment of the military to the border; resuming Migrant Protection Protocols; ending immigration enforcement protected spaces such as churches, schools, hospitals and shelters; and canceling the CBP One app that allowed migrants to make appointments to legally request asylum.
The cancellation of the CBP One app became effective at 1 p.m. Monday, leaving a few dozen migrants who had lined up at the Paso del Norte International Bridge for their appointment that day heartbroken.
“At this moment I feel very worn out. I feel very sad because I don’t know what I will do with my life from now on, because we came with one hope, and once we lost that hope it’s like everything has been closed to us,” said Margelis, a Colombian woman who was traveling with her husband, José, and 13-year-old son, both of whom are Venezuelan. Margelis said her 22-year-old son was killed by guerillas in Colombia.
“I can’t go back, not to my country,” she said. “I don’t want to go back.”
El Paso Matters freelance photojournalist Corrie Boudreaux contributed to this story.
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