Mexican migrant shelter aspires to raise its own food

By ALICIA FERNANDEZ

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — A shelter near the U.S.-Mexico border is hosting not only migrants and asylum seekers, but chickens, pigs and eventually fish as a local priest confronted with lengthier stays seeks a degree of self-sufficiency and stress-relieving activity for his guests.

Fr. Hector Trejo recognized that asylum seekers forced to wait out their U.S. asylum cases in Mexico were in some cases spending months at the San Matias shelter in this sprawling industrial city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

The waiting was stressful for people, who in some cases were fleeing traumatic situations in their home countries.

The costs of feeding a semi-permanent population were also growing. Raising their own food appears to help with both challenges.