In picture: life of immigrants in Mexico (3)

Photo taken on Aug. 22, 2013 shows Adrian Madrigal Valencia, 26, who was deported from the United States two years ago, covers his face as he poses in the zone known as "the square map" by the Tijuana River canal, in the city of Tijuana, northwestern Mexico. Adrian was a victim of Police's harassment and extortion since he got to Tijuana, when some cops asked him to give them money, and then, whenever he bumped into them on the street, he had to give them money again, "I had money my family sent from the U.S., but those cops took me as their ATM machine". The last time he was arrested, Police blamed him on drug sales charges but the judge who took his case didn't buy the story and put him into jail only for drug possession. Two months ago, after spending three months behind bars, Adrian decided to be cautious and not to go back to his former place of living, that's how he got to "el bordo", where he is waiting his chance to go back to the U.S., where his 9-year-old son and his whole family live. Adrian says he is rather to "take the risk to cross the border without any papers and spend from 5 to 20 years in a U.S. Federal prison", instead of keep being extorted in Mexico. On Aug. 5, local authorities started a 40 million pesos (300,000 US Dollar) investment project to clean off the garbage, soil and brushwood of the Tijuana River canal, an area commonly known as "el bordo" (the dam). Simultaneously, the Tijuana City Police initiated an operation to evict the people living in "el bordo", mostly immigrants who where deported from the U.S. and homeless people with no household alternative and usually living with drug issues. After several protests and demonstrations held by social organizations, the "human cleaning" decreased but the Police Department detentions and abuse persist against people living near or at "el bordo". According to social researchers of the College of the Northern Border (Colegio de la Frontera Norte), "Without a coordinated and oriented action that combines the efforts of the Government and society, Tijuana will remain to be acknowledged as the city which holds no respect for the deported immigrants human rights". (Xinhua/Guillermo Arias)