Moments of Leadership in Migration Mexico: Tijuana and Nogales

This case study explores how organizations in two Mexican border cities, Tijuana and Nogales, managed sudden shifts in migration through innovation and decisive action. In Tijuana, three women-led organizations – Comité Estratégico de Ayuda Humanitaria, Espacio Migrante, and Al Otro Lado – responded boldly to the unanticipated arrival of thousands of Haitian and Central American migrants seeking protected status in the United States. Each organization played a unique role in addressing the humanitarian crisis, providing legal assistance, and supporting the social integration of migrants. In Nogales, Casa de la Misericordia (Mercy House) leveraged the city’s preexisting human and social capital, as well as its own institutional foundation, to rapidly expand services in the midst of multiple crises in 2020. In both cases, the profiled CSOs exercised leadership to reshape their respective city's migrant support infrastructure and advance a new, inclusive approach to handling migration challenges. The leadership characteristics that emerged in these cities included transparency, collaboration, flexibility, and perseverance in the face of significant obstacles.