Hotel Migrante

Pedro Alberto Cordova, manager of Hotel Migrante shelter, located near Tijuana's red light district, sits inside the facility's storage room. Though the shelter is for male refugees and deportees, it has recently begun welcoming some families due to an increased need for shelter space, February 28, 2019.

Cordova fled Honduras when he could no longer afford to pay a 'war tax' (a payment for the right to run a business and not be killed) to local gangs. "It got to the point where I was paying off six different gangs...I was now working for them and there was nothing left to support my children." Cordova is afraid of requesting U.S. asylum because he fears that if his application is denied, he would be deported back to Honduras. “I’m not going to go into the United States just to get deported, arrive in my country and get shot.”

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