Juarez officials ready to assist Ukrainian refugees, but so far see none

Mexican border town dealing mostly with Central American migrants and internally displaced Mexicans

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – While hundreds of Ukrainian nationals have been passing through Tijuana, Mexico, on their way to the United States in the weeks since the Russian invasion started, Juarez officials say few – if any – are passing through North-Central Mexico.

Neither the two government shelters nor some of the largest private migrant refugees report coming across with refugees from Ukraine or Russia.

“We are prepared to assist them if we encounter them, but so far we have not,” said Enrique Valenzuela, head of the Chihuahua Population Council that runs Juarez’s Migrant Assistance Center.

Valenzuela said migrants from many parts of the world have passed through Juarez on their way to the U.S. in the past few years. That includes Haitians, Brazilians, Ecuadorans and, occasionally, migrants from outside the Western Hemisphere. But internally displaced Mexicans and the constant flow of Central Americans is whom local officials are seeing at Juarez shelters now.

In Tijuana, Mexican officials report the arrival of 487 Ukrainians this year, with the bulk – 310 – arriving in the past three weeks.

According to the New Jersey-based Ukrainian Weekly, more than 1.1 people of Ukrainian descent were living in the United States as of 2018. More than 170,000 of them were living in New York and 135,000 in California.