Immigration Lawyer Blog
I recently was interviewed by the Latin America News Dispatch about our work with Mexican clients relocating to San Diego. The majority of clients are in need of immediate assistance to relocate due to the increasing violence. Our work with Business owners is to assist with obtaining an E2 visa for new investors or L1A for Mexican companies setting up Branch offices in the US. We expect this trend to continue in 2010.
Paola Reyes write:
As Mexico’s two year-old drug war intensifies, leading to greater violence and insecurity in the city of Tijuana, many families are moving across the border to San Diego.
Some are taking their businesses with them.
From 2000 to 2008 there was a 34 percent increase in the number of Hispanics living in Chula Vista, San Diego’s second largest municipality, and an 11 percent increase in those living in San Diego. Overall Hispanics comprise 51 percent of the Chula Vista population and 28 percent of the San Diego population, according to the San Diego’s Regional Planning Agency.
“People go out less at night and business [at the Tijuana location] shrank,” according to Eduardo Angulo Venenzuela, a member of the family that owns the Mexican restaurant chain Los Arcos.
People living in San Diego go less frequently to Tijuana to eat as well, he added.
In order to compensate, many Tijuana restaurants came to them. Tacos El Gordo is a popular taco shop chain in Tijuana that recently opened a San Diego location. One online reviewer on Yelp aptly explained why the San Diego location is so popular, “I know the tacos in TJ [Tijuana] are so tasty and cheap but no one wants to go down there these days because of the killings.”