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San Diego diocese’s shelter in Tijuana offers migrant women and children safety, stability

April 17, 2026

[Episcopal News Service — Tijuana, Mexico] About 35 migrants, including 14 children, have received much needed support and services here on the U.S.-Mexico border since the 2025 opening of Comunidad de Luz, a shelter for migrant women and children operated by the Diocese of San Diego and its nonprofit and ecumenical partners. Episcopal News Service on April 14 joined some 20 attendees of this week’s Episcopal Communicators Conference in San Diego, California, to tour the shelter’s facilities in Tijuana and listen to residents share their stories. Many of the women and their children are fleeing violence, poverty and political and economic instability. ENS is withholding the residents’ last names because of their concerns for safety. “My family and I arrived in Mexico four years ago, but unfortunately my husband left us not long after,” Evelyn, a migrant from Honduras who lives with her son and daughter at Comunidad de Luz, told ENS speaking in Spanish. “My job working in the middle of the night was the only financial source I had to support my two children, and I didn’t have anyone – no family – to ask to help me take care of them while I worked. … Sometimes there was no food or water for my children. I was sad,”  The Diocese of San Diego partnered with Via International, the Vida Joven Foundation, the Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Anglican Diocese of Western Mexico to establish Comunidad de Luz – Spanish for “Community of Light.” Licensed by the Mexican government, the shelter can house up to 100 women and children, though it has not yet come close to reaching that capacity. Eleven migrant women and children are now staying at the shelter, according to Robert Vivar, the Diocese of San Diego’s immigration missioner and interim executive director of Comunidad de Luz. Some of them were deported from the United States while others have settled in Tijuana while waiting to legally cross the border. For some, Tijuana is the final destination. The hope, Vivar told ENS, is for guests to stay for at least four months to a year so that they have time to be treated for physical and mental health issues and develop employable skills while they get back on their feet.  “The goal of our mission is to provide the women different tools, workshops, mental health support and medical support so that they have the opportunity to support themselves through a dignified job and buy or rent their own apartment or home,” Vivar told ENS. “The goal is that by the time they leave here, they can continue as productive members of any community where they may see they want to live.” Vivar and his wife travel back and forth between Tijuana and San Diego to run Comunidad de Luz. Occasionally, the shelter functions as an emergency respite center for migrant women and children who need a few days to arrange transportation to their final destinations. Recently, a Mexican asylum-seeker living in Alaska and her sons were deported to Tijuana after she missed a court hearing. After learning about the family’s case from Alaska Bishop Mark Lattime, Vivar located the family and brought them to Comunidad de Luz, where they stayed for a day before relocating to Jalisco, where they have family. “This is one example of how we’ve determined that our mission is not only the long-term job training mission, but also sometimes we can be there to help people in the short term for many deportees and others who are in transition one way or another,” San Diego Bishop Susan Brown Snook told ENS in an in-person interview. “We’ve realized that there are people that we can help in a different way.” The origins of Comunidad de Luz date to 2023, shortly after Vivar started working for the diocese. Vivar preached about migration challenges at Christ Episcopal Church in Coronado, the church home of Tony Ralphs. Ralphs’ wife, Pilar, who is a Mexican citizen, owns the fenced 13-acre property in Tijuana where the shelter now sits. The Ralphses were already operating a six-story orphanage, retreat center and chapel on the compound but had another two-story building that wasn’t being used. After hearing Vivar preach, Tony Ralphs offered to license the empty building for a new migrant shelter. The building received significant upgrades and additions, including an apartment for its resident coordinator, bathrooms, showers and a larger water heater. The first floor includes a large commercial kitchen, a dining room, a laundry room and a meeting space for group therapy and other needs. The second floor has three large dormitory-style rooms with bunk beds provided by the Mexican government. In addition to basic necessities like food, clothing and hygiene products, Comunidad de Luz provides job training, physical and mental health services, nutrition and health education, language classes, child care, academic resources, transportation and spiritual care. Social workers are also available on site. Regular prayer services and pastoral care are offered at the shelter. Josette, a migrant and mother from Haiti, has been attending the cooking classes since she arrived at Comunidad de Luz in January. After learning new cooking techniques, she developed her own variation of fried green plantain chips that she now packages and sells at an outdoor market in front of the shelter. The chips are popular and quickly sell out every day. The money Josette earns will help her and her daughter permanently settle into a new home when they are ready to leave Comunidad de Luz. “The shelter has been a good place to be. I really want to thank the team because I feel really grateful for how they have helped me. I first felt like I stood out more at the shelter because of my dark skin and having to learn to speak Spanish, but everyone here has welcomed me,” Josette told the communicators in her native French. “I don’t work at the moment, so making and selling plantain […]