Local pastor says groups are trying to buy children or pair up with single mothers out of sheer desperation, but women and children migrants in Tijuana are terrified.
By WENDY FRY
JUNE 27, 2019 6:37 PM
Tijuana, Baja California — Some migrants in Tijuana are trying to purchase children from vulnerable single mothers in local shelters so they can more easily cross into the United States, according to shelter directors, migrants and Tijuana law enforcement authorities.
Migrants in Tijuana shelters said they are alarmed after reports of single mothers being approached by groups of men who have offered to buy children to improve their chances of safely crossing into the United States.

A decades-old legal document, known as the Flores agreement, says migrant children should only be held briefly in U.S. border custody, which often means they are released, along with the parent or guardian with whom they crossed while they wait for their asylum cases to make their way through clogged immigration courts.

A decades-old legal document, known as the Flores agreement, says migrant children should only be held briefly in U.S. border custody, which often means they are released, along with the parent or guardian with whom they crossed while they wait for their asylum cases to make their way through clogged immigration courts.

Portillo said the groups of men have been approaching the Iglesia Embajadores de Jesus shelter in Tijuana and offering about 7,000 pesos, or $350, to purchase a child to cross into the United States.

She said she fears the requests and the offers of money will turn into demands or kidnappings. Portillo said she never lets her two boys, aged 10 and 8, out of her sight.

“They want to rob our kids so they can cross into the United States,” she said angrily.

A spokesman for the Tijuana municipal police confirmed the reports and said federal authorities are investigating. The case was first reported by Tijuana journalists Yolanda Morales and Yuriria Sierra for Imagen TV.

Portillo said the groups of men have been approaching the Iglesia Embajadores de Jesus shelter in Tijuana and offering about 7,000 pesos, or $350, to purchase a child to cross into the United States.

She said she fears the requests and the offers of money will turn into demands or kidnappings. Portillo said she never lets her two boys, aged 10 and 8, out of her sight.

“They want to rob our kids so they can cross into the United States,” she said angrily.

A spokesman for the Tijuana municipal police confirmed the reports and said federal authorities are investigating. The case was first reported by Tijuana journalists Yolanda Morales and Yuriria Sierra for Imagen TV.

A 15-year-old teenager from Haiti said she was afraid to give her name because she witnessed the men approaching the shelter asking for children to buy.

“It’s horrific,” she said. “I could not even imagine the horror before I came here. I just wonder what happens to the kids once they make it across. It’s not like their mom or dad who will care for them no matter what.”

Banda stressed that none of the mothers sheltered at his church have cooperated with the men by selling their babies. He said as soon as he heard of the threat several weeks ago he called the police who have been monitoring the shelter every day, sometimes coming by three times a day, to try to identify the suspects.

In June 2018, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen faced criticism for justifying family separations at the border by warning about adults falsely identifying themselves as parents of migrant children they were traveling with across the border

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