To the southeast of Mexico City, the Albergue for Migrants Scalabrini Community Center, just over a year of its inauguration, faces food and resources shortage to serve 153 people, including 47 children.
Fr. Julio López, from the religious community of the Missionaries of San Carlos Scalabrini, revealed in an interview with ACI Press the complicated situation in which the shelter is located, since there is a lack of “support to ensure 20 days of worthy food”. The place has 132 beds, but currently “we serve 153 migrants of 15 nationalities, including 47 girls and boys.”
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An overflowing shelter
Aci Press visited the center a few days after its official inauguration, in July 2024. There he found that what was once a Catholic school became bedrooms and spaces that seek to respond to the saturation of the shelters in the Mexican capital.
However, currently the Scalabrini Community Center, according to Fr. López, has been affected by the support cuts of organizations and because we still do not have a consistent support network. ”
Among the immediate needs, it mentions the payment of basic services such as light and gas, as well as the purchase of medicines, “especially pediatric”.
The flow of migrants continues
Migration policies implemented in the United States have changed the panorama in Mexico. In the early days of his government, Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders that included harsh migration restrictions, such as the suspension of the asylum program on the southern border, displayed troops and began to make raids to deport undocumented migrants.
According to a report that analyzes January and February 2025, published on the website of the Government of Mexico, “these actions have had an immediate impact on the border between Mexico and the US.” The same document indicates that, despite this, “the migrant caravans continue to advance towards the border with the American Union, although now many have chosen to stay in the country in the face of the restrictions imposed by the US government.”
Fr. López confirms that at the Scalabrini Community Center “in the last month we have received new people daily.” The priest also acknowledged that there has been “an increase in the last four weeks, and here we particularly have a significant number of extracontinental people. Our population is 13 different nationalities.”
In the country, the missionaries of San Carlos Scalabrinianos have migrants attention houses in Iztapalapa, in Mexico City; Ecatepec, in the State of Mexico; in Tijuana, Baja California; and Guadalajara, Jalisco. In addition, they support other houses of diocesan migrants in various states.
Father López said that in the shelters of the Scalabrinians it has been noted that migration “is in a slight increase”, and “it is significant since the stay of the people has prolonged for weeks and/or months, depending on the situation of each person and the procedures they seek to do.”
Organizations support cuts
Various non -governmental organizations have criticized the cuts derived from Trump’s policy, which included mass deportations and the suspension of funds to international humanitarian aid programs.
The priest said that because his shelter is new, with just over a year inaugurated, “we have not had the luck of enough support from organizations for the cuts in their budgets.”
Fr. Julio Lopez warned that “in a matter of food we depend on donations and small projects that allow us to handle the basics, but there are moments that are scarce, because donations are not recurring.”
Today the priority is to get basic products: rice, spaghetti, cornmeal, wheat flour, oil, sugar, egg and milk. The aid can be delivered directly to the offices of the Scalabrini Foundation in Tlalpan, or in the same community center in Iztapalapa. Economic donations are also received through an account at Banco Santander, in the name of Scalabrini Foundation of Mexico AC.
Account number: 65-50920083-8
CLABE ACCOUNT: 014180655092008384
Concept: Urgent pantry
Diego López Colín
I am a graduate of journalism at the Carlos Septién García school with experience of religious institutional communication. Since 2016 I write for digital media and, since 2018, I report the most important news about the Catholic event in Mexico for the Ewtn news channel. ACI Press correspondent in Mexico since 2023.