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Several weeks agone a Mexican federal estimate ordered Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum to finish being hostile to migrants on the caravan that started in Honduras.

The ruling bans Tijuana officials from "issuing statements reverse to the protection of and respect for migrant people."

Gastelum, a 65-year-old attorney, is not listening.

Called "Tijuana Trump," Gastelum repeatedly has expressed his objections to the caravan and called for its organizers to be identified and prosecuted for taking reward of desperate people and putting their lives at take a chance.

What most rankles immigration advocacy groups are his characterizations of caravan migrants -- thousands of whom take arrived in Tijuana, overwhelming its shelters and other resources – as invaders and criminals.

In local interviews, Gastelum, who occasionally has worn a "Brand Tijuana Great Once again" lid, said the caravan included "pot smokers, bums and bad people."

"Tijuana is a city of migrants simply we don't want them [arriving] in this way. It was different with the Haitians, they had [immigration] papers, [their arrival] was orderly, it wasn't a horde, excuse the expression . . ." he said, co-ordinate to the Mexico News Daily. "These people arrive in an aggressive, rude way, chanting, challenging the authorities, doing what we're non accustomed to doing in Tijuana . . . I don't dare to say that information technology is all the migrants only in that location are some who are bums, pot smokers, they're attacking families in [the beachside borough] Playas de Tijuana, what is that?"

Recently, a homo rights coalition chosen on Gastelum to apologize for his attacks on the migrants. Gastelum essentially responded that they should not concord their breath.

Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum wears "Make Tijuana Great Again" hat.

Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum wears "Make Tijuana Bang-up Once more" hat. (Twitter)

"No, no, I'chiliad not going to apologize," he said, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune "Better that those who are against Tijuana apologize to us."

"Tijuana is a migrant town," he told the newspaper. "We're barely 129 years quondam. My mom was a migrant. My grandparents were migrants. Then, we are not agape of migration. What we do not want is bad behavior."

Gastelum's in-your-confront style was unpopular among many residents when he won the mayoral election in 2022 with just a third of Tijuana's 1.29 meg voters casting ballots.

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His approval ratings had been extremely low – only four percentage -- the San Diego Union-Tribune reported, about since he began his term.

But and so the caravan of thousands from Republic of honduras – and thousands more joining them along the way in El salvador and Guatemala – headed toward Mexico, and many toward Tijuana, specifically, and suddenly many frustrated residents of the border city found Gastelum'south unvarnished and provocative manner appealing.

At present, Gastelum is the forepart-runner in the mayoral election.

Tijuana is a migrant boondocks. We're barely 129 years one-time. My mom was a migrant. My grandparents were migrants. Then, we are not afraid of migration. What we do non want is bad beliefs.

— Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum

Victor Alejandro Espinosa, a political analyst at Tijuana's Colegio de la Frontera Norte, likened Gastelum's focus on the caravan and its popularity with voters to Trump'due south speeches about the border and its appeal to his base.

"It is a shame, just this could help explain the positive trajectory of support for the mayor among this segment of the Tijuana population," he said.

Gastelum's critics say he is exploiting the transgressions and crimes of a minor group – less than 300 out of some half dozen,000 who have ended upwards in Tijuana -- to smear the entire caravan of migrants who are fleeing violence and poverty.

They say that well-nigh of the crimes that Gastelum frequently speaks about are drug possession and being drunk in public.

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Enrique Morones, the president of San Diego-based Edge Angels, a human being rights group, said that Gastelum's rhetoric encourages violence.

"How dare he call the migrants criminals, bringing diseases. He is promoting violence," Morones said to the newspaper. "Hate words lead to detest deportment."

Gastelum takes aim at United mexican states's national officials for beingness, as he sees it, likewise tolerant of the caravan at Tijuana'due south expense.

"I'm non going to compromise Tijuana's economic resource to fulfill a wish of the federal government to try to show themselves as very humanitarian," he said.

"Why don't they escort them to Ciudad Juarez or Nogales or Agua Prieta? No, instead they escort them hither?" he asked.