Mayor 'Tijuana Trump' blasts caravan migrants, calls them 'bums', says they're attacking families

Several weeks ago a Mexican federal judge ordered Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum to stop being hostile to migrants on the caravan that started in Honduras.

The ruling bans Tijuana officials from “issuing statements contrary to the protection of and respect for migrant people."

Gastelum, a 65-year-old attorney, is not listening.

Called “Tijuana Trump,” Gastelum repeatedly has expressed his objections to the caravan and called for its organizers to be identified and prosecuted for taking advantage of desperate people and putting their lives at risk.

What most rankles immigration advocacy groups are his characterizations of caravan migrants -- thousands of whom have arrived in Tijuana, overwhelming its shelters and other resources – as invaders and criminals.

In local interviews, Gastelum, who occasionally has worn a “Make Tijuana Great Again” hat, said the caravan included “pot smokers, bums and bad people.”

“Tijuana is a city of migrants but we don’t want them [arriving] in this way. It was different with the Haitians, they had [immigration] papers, [their arrival] was orderly, it wasn’t a horde, excuse the expression . . .” he said, according to the Mexico News Daily. “These people arrive in an aggressive, rude way, chanting, challenging the authorities, doing what we’re not accustomed to doing in Tijuana . . . I don’t dare to say that it is all the migrants but there are some who are bums, pot smokers, they’re attacking families in [the beachside borough] Playas de Tijuana, what is that?”

Recently, a human rights coalition called on Gastelum to apologize for his attacks on the migrants. Gastelum essentially responded that they should not hold their breath.

“No, no, I’m not going to apologize,” he said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune “Better that those who are against Tijuana apologize to us.”

“Tijuana is a migrant town,” he told the newspaper. “We’re barely 129 years old. My mom was a migrant. My grandparents were migrants. So, we are not afraid of migration. What we do not want is bad behavior.”

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Last Edited by STAX on 02/05/2019 04:53 PM