Migrants’ rights groups in Tijuana are replacing the 1,000 wooden crosses they’ve affixed to the U.S. Mexico border fence during the last eleven years. The crosses which represent migrants who’ve died crossing the California Mexico border are rotting due to sun and rain. KPBS Reporter Amy Isackson has details.
Migrants’ groups began installing white wooden crosses on the border fence near the Tijuana airport on Day of the Dead in 1998. The first batch numbered 340 for those who died trying to cross into the United States since 1995, when the federal government launched an enforcement only strategy to stem the flow of illegal traffic. Since then, activists have added nearly 700 more crosses.
Father Luis Kanjeski runs a migrant shelter in Tijuana. He says the Mexican and U.S. governments need to do something to stop the deaths.
Kanjeski: And also society cause when you see that cross, you remember these people are dying. They are trying to get a better life, a better job and because of that, they are dying.
Aproximately 4,000 migrants have died crossing the U.S. Mexico border in the last 11 years. Kanjeski estimates in will take two months to replace the crosses. Amy Isackson, KPBS News.
