Greetings from Tijuana. Refugee Health Alliance is a non-profit organization that provides the majority of medical care for asylum seekers at the northern US-Mexico border. RHA has continued to provide care and to support birthing patients throughout COVID19, adapting to changes required by testing, reverse isolation and hygiene measures. Now migrants and refugees face new challenges. There is a human rights crisis on the US-Mexico border. This complex situation has evolved through a global pandemic and the shifting policies of two administrations, leaving migrants and refugees stranded in an impossible limbo and robbing them of basic necessities and human dignity.  Tijuana does not have sufficient resources to respond to a crisis of this magnitude, and the system is already strained. We are committed to not abandoning our patients, but we desperately need your help.

 

After Biden ended the Migrant Protection Protocol program (known as MPP, or Remain in Mexico), an estimated 30-50,000 people who were sent back to Mexico to await their court dates are now being legally processed. Civil society groups including RHA are working to safely cross asylum-seekers to the U.S. safely pending their asylum claims. 50-100 asylum-seekers are processed on a daily basis, with RHA’s medical support.

 

Thousands of migrants also wait in Mexico secondary to illegal metering practices and Title 42. Under this legal code, hundreds of individuals seeking asylum (except unaccompanied minors), are deported on a daily basis; either back to Mexico to wait in unsafe and over-crowded conditions, or back to their countries of origin; where their lives are at risk due to political unrest, endemic violence, and poverty. Vulnerable groups including black, indigenous, queer and trans refugees experience aggressive racism and transphobia in Tijuana and have nowhere to turn when they are targeted. 14,000 unaccompanied children are in US custody after being apprehended while crossing the US-Mexico border, with little hope of family reunification.

 

Donations are desperately needed to provide urgently needed medical services, support overwhelmed shelters in Tijuana, continue medical-legal efforts, and distribute food and basic hygiene kits to migrants and refugees. The majority of RHA’s funding goes directly to these efforts.

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Here are some ways you can donate: