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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Thousands of Ukrainians fly into Mexico and then cross the border into the United States near San Diego.
For about a month, volunteers have been running a makeshift camp to welcome refugees heading to the United States from Tijuana, Mexico, through the San Ysidro port of entry
Volunteers greet them with clapping and cheers, coming in one by one, each with a similar story: several days of travel, a tiring journey and worries about the future.
Alona Bastys welcomed her sister Iryna this week.
Iryna spent several days on planes and at a processing center in Mexico.
“There are no words to describe what we’re feeling,” Bastys said.
Elena Fetisova welcomed her teenage sister to Tijuana on day five of the trip from Ukraine.
“My sister is 15 and comes straight from Ukraine,” said Fetisova.
Elena Fetisova, 34, greeted her sister, 15, in Tijuana, Mexico after her sister fled Ukraine and flew west to reach the United States. (Elena Fetisova) (Fox News)
And 22-year-old Nataliya Povod was on a study trip to the Czech Republic when the war began. 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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According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR), 4.6 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began, many to nearby European countries.
“I spoke to this lady. She is 62 years old. She had her own hair salon and just didn’t want to leave. She says this is my home,” said Alina Gordon, founder of the Church of Music San Diego and a volunteer at the border. “The night before she decided to leave, they dropped a phosphorus bomb in front of her apartment.”
Churches, nonprofits and other organizations are helping people on both sides of the border by providing food, water, hot drinks, blankets and even books and toys for children.
They also offer transportation, temporary housing and free legal advice.
Alina Gordon says she immigrated to the United States with her parents from Ukraine in 1994.
“You left everything behind. But the difference then to what’s happening now is that we had a year to prepare for immigration,” Gordon said. “Most of the families I’m meeting right now are 99.9% gone overnight. And they have a backpack with them. And most of their belongings are still in Ukraine.”
Volunteers set up makeshift camp along southwest border in Tijuana, Mexico for Ukrainian refugees attempting to cross into US (Alona Bastys) (Fox News)
Immigration lawyers say strict visa requirements, lack of documents and pandemic restrictions have made it difficult for Ukrainians to legally enter the United States
It’s quicker to cross Mexico and then apply for asylum at the border.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from. If you wish to enter the United States, you will need some form of entry documentation. We usually have that in our passport,” said Alejandro San Miguel, an immigration attorney in McAllen, Texas on the southwest border. “People who don’t have that can always report to a port of entry… and they can apply for asylum.”
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Asylum claims in the US can take years to resolve, but for many, making it onto American soil is a victory.
“I feel like I’m in the right place right now,” said Povod. “And I felt like if 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 keep in touch with her family in Ukraine on a daily basis.
“Every day I call her (and say) ‘Hey, do you live there?'”
Fetisova, 34, moved to the United States when she was 19. Her sister, who arrived on Monday, is just 15 years old.
“It was very difficult for them to even fly here through Mexico City. They just brought her into the room. They didn’t tell her until her passport and phone are from her and the poor child sits there for like an hour or more. She doesn’t know what to do. So that was very scary,” Fetisova said.
Volunteers say they saw the number of Ukrainians crossing in mid-March increase from a few dozen to thousands, many of them women and children.
“We went from about 100 to 150 refugees a day to now about 50 in two hours,” Gordon said.
Customs and Border Protection updates its website every month with the previous month’s data on illegal border crossings and encounters.
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The March numbers weren’t released as of April 13, and a spokesman for CBP declined to release them directly to Fox News before they go online.
CBS News reports that nearly 10,000 undocumented Ukrainians crossed the border between February 1 and April 6, but CBP would not confirm those numbers to Fox News. They also report 41,000 “legal entries” by Ukrainians entering the US with the right documents, such as visas and passports.
President Biden said the US would take 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the country, but the administration has not given further details.