As the migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border continues to surge, this startling footage from the border near Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California shows the desperate situation of many trying to escape their brutal conditions on March 26.

"The migrants arrived assuming they could walk across the border but have now been stranded in the thousands right at the edge of the border crossing. Loudspeakers could be heard giving instructions on how to complete the asylum process and the amount of wait time expected," said the filmer J.W. Schafe about the scene he described as 'eye-opening.'

Hundreds of tents are lined up in tight spaces, with migrants filing in and out in the footage.

Schafe said visited "this exact same location as recently as the beginning of February 2021, and there was not a single tent or shelter in place," showing how the crisis has mounted in scope.

"These people are desperate," Jeff Self, a recently retired Border Patrol agent, said of migrants seeking to enter the United States, to national media. "I can't say I wouldn't do the same thing if I were down in El Salvador or those Central American countries, having to deal with the corruption, the poverty, and the violence."

The rate of search-and-rescue missions conducted by Border Patrol agents in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California has nearly doubled.

In fiscal years 2019 and 2020, the U.S. Border Patrol conducted about 5,000 such rescues each year. In just the past five months, agents have conducted nearly 4,000, according to media reports.

Of the nearly 97,000 migrants who crossed the border illegally in February, around 70,100 were turned away, according to US Customs and Border Protection data. Those numbers may reflect some repeat crossers.

"I have contacts in Tijuana who verified this as we briefly walked around the premises. This video is from a couple of days ago when I —completely and unexpectedly — came across the migrant tent city /refugee camp," Schafe tells Newsflare.

As I am attempting to park near the Plaza Viva Tijuana (directly adjacent from the Ped-West Border Crossing from Tijuana into the USA), I am shocked to see the magnitude of a migrant tent city that has been assembled, overtaking the entire Ped-West entrance promenade.

The vast amount of tents and makeshift shelters in what is essentially now a refugee camp, is easily in the multiple thousands.

Speaking with locals in Tijuana they state that the vast majority are asylum seekers from Central American countries such as Guatemala and Honduras; along with individuals from African nations who also joined the caravans.

The migrants arrived assuming they could walk across the border but have now been stranded in the thousands right at the edge of the border crossing. Loudspeakers could be heard giving instructions on how to complete the asylum process and the amount of wait time expected.

I have contacts in Tijuana who verified this as we briefly walked around the premises. This video is from a couple days ago when I (completely and unexpectedly) came across the migrant tent city/refugee camp.

I drove through this exact same location as recently as the beginning of February 2021, and there was not a single tent or shelter in place.

It was very eye opening as to the current humanitarian struggles faced on the US/MX border between Tijuana, MX and San Diego, CA.


Firsthand view of the migrant crisis in Tijuana, MX directly across the San Diego, CA border. There is a massive tent-city that has formed, literally taking over the entirety of what used to be the "Ped-West Border Crossing".