Staff and residents of the Ágape migrant shelter in Tijuana marched to the Baja California Attorney General’s office to demand accountability in the case of a migrant named Manuel. According to shelter director Albert Rivera, a group of men allegedly tortured and abandoned Manuel on March 25. Weeks later, the shelter says no agency has taken meaningful action on the case.
Rivera accused multiple government agencies of failing to respond promptly or coordinate their efforts. The march brought shelter workers and migrants directly to the Fiscalía General del Estado (FGE), Baja California’s state prosecutor’s office, to press for an investigation into the attack.
Shelter Director Calls Out Institutional Failures
Rivera said the weeks since the March 25 attack have been marked by bureaucratic delays and a lack of inter-agency communication. He pointed to failures across several levels of government, though the source did not specify which agencies beyond the FGE were involved. The shelter’s public confrontation with state prosecutors is unusual and points to deep frustration with the pace of the case.
Ágape is one of Tijuana’s most established migrant shelters, located in the southern part of the city. It has housed hundreds of migrants at a time and has faced security threats before. In 2022, armed men pointed firearms at migrants and staff from nearby rooftops, prompting a separate protest outside army headquarters. In May of that year, a stray bullet from a nearby shootout wounded a woman inside the facility.
Pattern of Violence Against Tijuana Shelters
The march comes during a period of heightened vulnerability for Tijuana’s shelter network. U.S. cuts to USAID funding earlier this year forced several shelters to consider reducing services or closing altogether. Tijuana remains a major transit and deportation point along the U.S.-Mexico border, and shelters operate with limited resources in neighborhoods where organized crime is active.
Advocacy groups have documented a pattern of threats and violence against Tijuana migrant shelters in recent years, often with little protective response from local authorities. The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) reported in 2023 that the frequency of attacks on shelters raised “serious concerns about the safety of migrants and shelter staff.”
No arrests have been reported in Manuel’s case. The FGE has not publicly commented on the status of its investigation. This story was first reported by Zeta Tijuana.