by Todd Bensman
Center for Immigration Studies
TIJUANA, Mexico – A small blue dome, minaret and pole topped with the universal half-moon crescent symbol of Islam marks the location of an immigrant shelter waystation like no other in Mexico.
Since June 2022, the Albergue Assabil/Mesquijta Taybah shelter has operated just two blocks from where Cristóbal Colón Avenue abruptly ends at the rust-colored American border wall, which all who shelter here plan to get past one way or another.
But this combination mosque-shelter’s unique religion-based mission also distinguishes it from all other shelters in a consequential way that has gone publicly unexplored to date: as a matter of concern for American national security and terrorism.
While immigrant shelters in Tijuana and other northern Mexican border cities brim mainly with Spanish-speakers, this two-story, 8,000-square-foot former bar is the only one that expressly caters to Muslims, who arrive by taxi and Uber daily at its gated door from all over the Islamic world, including Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Somalia, and other countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.