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Teen mom, newborn eye new life from Tijuana migrant shelter

Posted July 22, 2019 7:00 am

By JULIE WATSON

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) - A 1-month-old boy born to a Salvadoran teen is starting his life at a migrant shelter in Tijuana.

Milagro de JesÃºs HenrÃquez Ayala says the cramped cinderblock room she shares with about 25 other migrants is not ideal for raising her newborn son, but the 16-year-old mom says it is better than her violent homeland that she fled with her younger sister, Xiomara.

The sisters are among an untold number of Central American youths who traveled without parents, accompanied only by other migrants in a caravan that crossed Mexico and landed in crime-ridden Tijuana in November. HenrÃquez Ayala got pregnant by a boyfriend shortly before arriving.

They say they no longer seek the American dream. They now hope to build a life in Mexico.

In this June 06, 2019 photo, Salvadoran teen migrant Milagro de Jesus Henriquez Ayala chats with a friend while she washes her clothes at Agape World Mission shelter, in Tijuana, Mexico. About 25 people sleep in the cinderblock room crammed with seven bunkbeds at a Tijuana shelter overflowing with migrants, primarily from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador but also from as far away as Africa. (AP Photo/ Emilio Espejel) The Associated Press

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