Irate residents halt construction of migrant shelter

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Residents of a southeast Juarez neighborhood are demanding the government call off plans to build a migrant shelter near their children’s schools.

The residents of Praderas del Sol on Wednesday took cardboard signs to the construction zone and placed themselves in front of heavy machines grading the soil, momentarily halting construction.

“We are here to stop the construction of this shelter for migrants. It is something we don’t need,” said Beatriz Paredes, whose children attend the nearby elementary and middle schools. “We will be affected, and the children will be affected. A lot of children walk (to school) by themselves. We are not saying they (the migrants) are bad, but we don’t know what habits they have.”

The facility under construction is one of five multipurpose centers Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF), a family services agency, is building throughout Juarez to shelter single women, moms with their children fleeing domestic violence, and migrants passing through the city.

Juarez Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar said the city received a multimillion-dollar grant from the federal government to build the shelters, which will allow local officials to shut down the massive Kiki Romero migrant shelter in central Juarez and again use it as a gym in an area where authorities want to keep young people away from drugs.

Resident Cesar Gutierrez said he was pleased when he saw the DIF signs on the vacant lot, thinking a daycare or children’s center was coming to Praderas del Sol.

“I was about to go out riding my bike when I found out it was a (migrant) shelter. We already have enough problems in the area, including public safety,” he said. “Some things have gotten better but we don’t need any more problems. All we have to do is look at Downtown and see the reality. Why do we want to bring those problems here?”

Municipal officials were not immediately available for comment on the protest.

Juarez in the past five years has seen the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants from all over the world on their way to the United States. City officials repeatedly have told Border Report the migrants don’t represent a public safety threat and that most residents are happy to help them.

However, some neighborhoods like Pradera del Sol already dealing with public safety issues are leery of the arrival of foreign nationals.

“The government should work on things that benefit us. Why do you want to bring migrants, people we don’t know? There’s (an elementary) there, there’s a middle school there and another middle school (beyond). We are surrounded by schools; many people pass through here. Why do you want to bring a migration problem here?”

ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report

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