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 The COVID-19 vaccine doses were given to migrants a day after the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control extended the so-called Title 42
order that allows U.S. officials to send thousands of non-Mexicans
back to Mexico without the chance to seek asylum or other
protections in the United States.
An official from the health department in Baja California said 450
doses were being given at the camp, of about 4,000 available. He did
not say if more would be used at the camp on other days.
Officials also did not confirm whether the vaccinations would extend
to other areas with large concentrations of migrants, such as
shelters in Tijuana or other border cities.
"I feel very safe now because here ... there are many people and one
can easily catch this disease," said Roberto Espana, a Guatemalan
migrant who was the first to get the shot.
"I'll wait for the second dose in three weeks," said Espana, who
arrived in the area four months ago hoping to ask U.S. officials for
asylum.
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Authorities from the United States and Mexico have made efforts to
reopen the border, which has been closed to crossings considered
non-essential since March 2020. Despite prioritizing vaccinating
border cities, the restrictions remain in place.
Reluctance to relax the restrictions may be exacerbated by lower
vaccination rates among the transient migrant population, some of
whom like Espana have spent months hoping to make U.S. asylum
claims.
"It is not that the government is very concerned about the situation
of migrants but rather that there is pressure to reopen the border,
even of an economic nature", said Karla Valenzuela, a researcher on
migration issues for the Universidad Iberoamericana.
(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz, writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing
by Frank Jack Daniel and Grant McCool)
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