San Diego diocese, partners open migrant shelter for women and children in Tijuana

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of San Diego in southern California and several nonprofit and ecumenical partners opened a shelter for migrant women and children in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the U.S.-Mexico border. The first residents are expected to move in on April 15, and staff and volunteers from both sides of the border are ready to serve them.

The diocese partnered with Via International, the Vida Joven Foundation, the Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Anglican Diocese of Western Mexico to establish Comunidad de Luz – Spanish for “Community of Light.” Licensed by the Mexican government, the shelter will house up to 150 women and children fleeing violence, poverty and political and economic instability.

“God understands the plight of the migrants and the refugees and those who are fleeing from danger and those who need to find a way to start a new life. God is most deeply concerned about the poorest and most vulnerable of our society, and that is where our church needs to be,” San Diego Bishop Susan Brown Snook told Episcopal News Service in a phone interview. “We need to be following Jesus, who said that whatever you do to the least of my siblings, you are doing to me. …We are ministering to Jesus himself and, metaphorically, to Jesus’s mother, Mary.”

In addition to basic necessities like food, clothing and hygiene products, Comunidad de Luz will provide job training, mental health services, nutrition and health education, language classes, child care, academic resources, transportation and spiritual care. Social workers will also be available on site. The Rev. Tony Hernandez, a priest in the Anglican Church of Mexico, will offer regular prayer services and pastoral care at the shelter. Comunidad de Luz also has outdoor space that includes a play area; it will eventually include a vegetable garden that will be a part of the nutrition and children’s education programs.

No time limit has been established for residents to stay at Comunidad de Luz, but Snook said she and others involved with the shelter estimate they would stay for up to a year. In that time, the women will “hopefully” have completed job training and have established a network as they search for housing and employment in Tijuana.

Child residents will be enrolled in a nearby public school, with the shelter covering the cost of uniforms and school supplies, Snook said. 

Robert Vivar, the Diocese of San Diego’s immigration missioner, told ENS the shelter aims to create self-sustainable programs for the residents so that they can live “a quality life” after leaving.

“We want to create a space where vulnerable migrant women and children have an opportunity to live a dignified life,” he said. The goal is “to help prepare them so that at a certain point, they can reintegrate back into their community.”

Work on Comunidad de Luz began in 2023, shortly after Vivar started working for the diocese. Vivar preached about migration challenges at Christ Episcopal Church in Coronado, the church home of Tony Ralph. His wife, a Mexican citizen, owns the fenced 13-acre property in Tijuana where the shelter now sits. The Ralphs were already operating a six-story orphanage, retreat center and chapel on the compound, but had another two-story building that wasn’t being used. After hearing Vivar preach, Tony Ralph offered to license the empty building for a new migrant shelter.

The building received significant upgrades and additions, including an apartment for its resident coordinator, bathrooms, showers, a larger water heater and more. The first floor includes a large commercial kitchen, a dining room, a laundry room and a meeting space for group therapy and other needs. The second floor has three large dormitory-style rooms with bunk beds provided by the Mexican government.

An apartment and office space for the shelter’s resident coordinator, Monse Melendez, was also added to the building.

Comunidad de Luz is licensed to serve only women and children because of its shared property with the orphanage, according to Snook.

Elisa Sabatini is director of Via International, a San Diego-based nonprofit that promotes sustainable, asset-based community development across Latin America, the United States and Sri Lanka. She told ENS that the shelter will “probably cost” $100,000 a year to remain fully operational.

“We have the resources for the operational aspects like bedding, lodging and meals, but I think the more ambitious part of the shelter will be the training of staff and volunteers, the education programs and the health and psychological services,” Sabatini said. “We’ll need to keep raising money to be sure that we’re solid with everything we’re trying to offer.”

Via International will run adult programming within Comunidad de Luz, including career development and trauma-informed psychological care. The nonprofit will also organize mission service trips to the shelter through its Via GO Travel program.

Aida Renee Amador Aleman, a migrant coordinator for Via International since 2017, will serve as director of Comunidad de Luz.

Snook said a $300,000 startup grant from a private foundation helped to kickstart the shelter. She said she thinks that money will last about a year-and-a-half, but “we’re recognizing that we can’t just sit back and say we’ve got this money and we’re going to be fine.” Fundraising for future sustainment has already begun; almost $25,000 was raised during the Christmas 2024 season.

“So much is required to start a program like this, from the legal side to the financial and fundraising side, to pulling together the partners who are passionate about this work,” Snook said.

Snook and Sabatini are board members of the shelter along with Janet Marseilles, a board member of the Vida Joven Foundation. The San Marcos, California-based nonprofit provides funding and services to orphaned and migrant children in the Mexican state of Baja California. Vida Joven has committed financial support to Comunidad de Luz’s programs for children.

Clergy, Tijuana officials, community activists and others who’ve been addressing the humanitarian crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border gathered April 1 at Comunidad the Luz for a ribbon cutting ceremony. Attendees toured the facility and met staff to learn more about the shelter’s programs. Hernandez, the Mexican priest, led a group prayer.

The Tijuana shelter’s opening comes after many migrant shelters and services in the United States have closed in recent months due to a sharp decline in border crossings and anti-immigration policy changes under the Trump administration, including restrictions on the asylum process. Episcopal-operated shelters, like the Diocese of the Rio Grande’s shelter at St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in El Paso, Texas, and the Diocese of West Texas’ Plaza de Paz Respite Center in San Antonio, Texas, have closed indefinitely. The new policies also effectively halted the United States’ refugee resettlement program, which had been facilitated by Episcopal Migration Ministries and nine other agencies with federal contracts.  

“With the new policies under the Trump administration, it’s going to create an additional strain on housing for migrants in Tijuana,” Vivar said. “Even before these changes, we saw Comunidad de Luz as something that’s very much needed.”

Snook said she hopes to eventually collaborate with the Catholic Archdiocese of Tijuana and other additional potential ecumenical partners in supporting Comunidad de Luz.

“We need to create a safe community and work together to care for this new ministry,” she said. “It’s vitally important to work on the ground in Tijuana to fulfill the migrants’ physical, economical, emotional and spiritual needs. We need to work together to minister to the whole person.”

-Shireen Korkzan is a reporter and assistant editor for Episcopal News Service. She can be reached at skorkzan@episcopalchurch.org.