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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Thousands of Ukrainians are flying to Mexico and then crossing into the U.S. near San Diego.
For about a month now, volunteers have run a makeshift camp to greet the refugees as they walk through the San Ysidro Port of Entry from Tijuana, Mexico, into the U.S.
Volunteers greet them with clapping and cheers, coming in one after the other, each with a similar story: multiple days of travel, an exhausting journey and worry for the future.
Alona Bastys welcomed her sister Iryna this week.
Iryna spent multiple days on planes and in a processing center in Mexico.
“There are no words to describe what we feel,” Bastys said.
Elena Fetisova greeted her teenage sister in Tijuana on day five of the trip from Ukraine.
“My sister is 15, and she’s coming straight from Ukraine,” Fetisova said.
Elena Fetisova, 34, greeted her sister, 15, in Tijuana, Mexico, after her sister escaped Ukraine and flew to the west to reach the United States. (Elena Fetisova)
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And 22-year-old Nataliya Povod was on a study abroad trip in the Czech Republic when the war started. Her program ended this month.
“In April, I had to go home. But I understood that there is no way to go home,” Povod said.
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Since the war started, 4.6 million people have escaped Ukraine, many to nearby European countries, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR).
“I spoke to this lady. She’s 62 years old. She had her own hair studio salon, and she just did not want to leave. She’s like, this is my home,” said Alina Gordon, founder of the Church of Music San Diego and volunteer at the border. “The night before she decided to leave, they dropped a phosphorus bomb outside her apartment.”
Churches, nonprofits and other organizations are helping people on both sides of the border, providing food, water, hot drinks, blankets and even books and toys for kids.
They are also offering transportation, temporary housing and free legal services.
Alina Gordon says she immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine with her parents in 1994.
“They left everything behind. But the difference back then versus what’s happening now is that we had a year to prepare for the immigration,” Gordon said. “Most of the families that I’m meeting right now, 99.9% left overnight. And they have a backpack with them. And most of their belongings are still back in Ukraine.”
Volunteers set up a makeshift camp along the southwest border in Tijuana, Mexico, for Ukrainian refugees who are attempting to cross into the U.S. (Alona Bastys)
(Fox News)
Immigration lawyers say strict visa requirements, missing documents and pandemic restrictions have made it difficult for Ukrainians to legally enter the U.S.
Crossing through Mexico and then applying for asylum at the border is quicker.
“It doesn’t matter where you’re from. If you want to enter the United States, you need to have some sort of documentation to enter. We usually have that in our passport,” said Alejandro San Miguel, an immigration lawyer in McAllen, Texas, which is on the southwest border. “Individuals who do not have that, they can always present themselves at a port of entry … and they can request asylum.”
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Asylum claims in the U.S. can take years to be resolved, but for many, just making it to American soil is a victory.
“I feel that I’m in the right place right now,” Povod said. “And I felt like when you just cross the border and go out, a lot of people are just helping… So it feels like you came home.”
For Elena Fetisova, she tries to stay in contact with her family in Ukraine daily.
“Every day I call them (and say) “Hey, are you alive there?”
Fetisova, 34, moved to the U.S. when she was 19 years old. Her sister, who arrived Monday, is just 15 years old.
“It was very hard for her to even fly here through Mexico City. They just put her in the room. They didn’t tell her anything until her passport and her phone from her and the poor kid is sitting there for like one hour and she doesn’t know what to do. So that was very scary,” Fetisova said.
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Volunteers say they’ve seen the number of Ukrainians crossing go from a few dozen in mid-march to thousands., many of them women and children.
“We went from them processing about 100 to 150 refugees per day to now they’re processing about 50 per two hours,” Gordon said.
Customs and Border Protection updates its website each month with the previous month’s data on illegal crossings and encounters.
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Numbers from March have not been posted as of April 13, and a spokesperson with CBP declined to provide them directly to Fox News before they go online.
CBS News reports that nearly 10,000 Ukrainians without proper documentation have crossed between Feb. 1 and April 6, but CBP would not confirm these numbers to Fox News. They also report 41,000 “legal entries” of Ukrainians entering the U.S. with proper documents like visas and passports.
President Biden has said the U.S. would accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the country, but the administration hasn’t given more details.
