Migrant caravan heads towards the United States

By Marco Ugarte and Yesica Fisch | Associated Press

Luis Villalobos, EFE

QUERETARO, Mexico — Local Mexican officials were once again Sunday helping thousands of Central American migrants find rides on the next leg of their journey toward the U.S. border.

At a toll plaza to the west of the central Mexico city of Queretaro, where the group spent Saturday night, police helped find trucks to take migrants and prevented them from trying to stop drivers themselves.

The government of Queretaro said via Twitter that 6,531 migrants had moved through the state between Friday and Saturday. It said that 5,771 of those were departing Sunday morning after staying in three shelters it had prepared, the largest of which was a soccer stadium in the state capital.

Those numbers appeared even higher than counts made by officials when the group was in Mexico City for several days, raising the possibility that other migrants have caught up to the main caravan.

The migrants began walking before dawn Sunday for Irapuato about 62 miles (100 kilometers) to the west after crossing into Guanajuato state, where local authorities also assisted them.

AP

From Mexico City to Queretaro

A day earlier a similar scene played out as the caravan exited Mexico City. Dedicated metro trains moved migrants across the capital before dawn and at a toll plaza north of the city they formed orderly lines to wait for their turn to climb aboard passing 18-wheelers that were willing to help them cover the 124 miles (200 kilometers) to Queretaro.

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Emilson Manuel Figueroa managed a seat on the back of a flatbed truck packed with other migrants.

"I think that in my country I will get old and will never have something to live on," said the 23-year-old cab driver from Honduras.

Bundling up on a cool morning and toting backpacks with blankets and sleeping cushions, thousands of migrants trudged along Mexico City’s perimeter highway and through its northern suburbs, hoping to hitch rides to take them more than 120 miles to Querétaro even as more more migrants winding their way through southern Mexico were expected to converge on the national capital in the coming days.

Many migrants had been hoping to obtain transportation to take them through some of Mexico’s most troubled states to the U.S.-Mexico border. But the buses failed to materialize, prompting impatience for many — including a group of several hundred migrants, who left for Querétaro Friday morning.

“We can’t stay in one place for too long,” said Honduran migrant Jorge Pérez, 29, as he left the Cuatro Caminos subway station and started walking the thoroughfare out of town.

“Mexico is taking care of us, but our objective isn’t to stay here,” he added after spending four nights at a sports stadium provided for by Mexico City for the caravan travelers. “The goal is to go northward.”

Mexico City marked a milestone for the caravan, which covered more than 1,000 miles after leaving San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Oct. 12. The caravan has crossed closed borders, pushed past police blockades and became a prop in the U.S. midterm elections — though most of the migrants appeared to know little of the U.S. political storm.

Luis Villalobos, EPA-EFE

Appears to be heading to Tijuana

The migrants appear to be on a path to Tijuana across the border from San Diego, which is still some 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers) away. They also face a new asylum policy that went effect Saturday that does not allow anyone to apply unless they come through a border entry point. The ACLU and others are challenging the move in court.

The caravan became a campaign issue in U.S. midterm elections and U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of over 5,000 military troops to the border to fend off the migrants. Trump has also insinuated without proof that there are criminals or even terrorists in the group.

Many migrants say they are fleeing rampant poverty, gang violence and political instability primarily in the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and they have now been on the road for weeks.

Mexico has offered refuge, asylum or work visas to the migrants, and its government said 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families to cover them while they wait for the 45-day application process for a more permanent status.

But most vowed to continue to the United States.

"(In the U.S.) we can earn more and give something to our family, but there (in Honduras) even when we want to give something to our children, we can't because the little we earn it's just for food, to pay the house and the light, nothing else," said Nubia Morazan, 28, of Honduras as she prepared to set out Sunday with her husband and two children.

The original caravan is expected to travel 1,750 miles toward Tijuana, passing through Guadalajara and going north along Mexico’s Pacific coast. The road is rife with risks and passes through the drug cartel heartland of Sinaloa state.

Vic Kolenc/El Paso Times

Political troubles in US, at UN

Caravan coordinators had demanded the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide buses to take them to Tijuana — and some 200 migrants marched to the UN office in the posh Polanco district of Mexico City to press their unsuccessful claim.

The UN said in a statement Friday that it was accompanying the caravan and supporting the Mexican government with processing asylum claims, but it was not in a position to provide transportation because it was the responsibility of government authorities.

“The UN turned their backs on us worse than anyone,” Pérez said.

Trump has vowed that the caravan will not cross into the United States and has ordered the deployment of up to 15,000 troops to the border ahead of its arrival. Many in the caravan didn’t seem dissuaded by Trump’s threats, nor plans announced Thursday to limit asylum requests to only those presenting themselves at an authorized port of entry – with those crossing into the country illegally being subject to detention and expedited deportation.

The first caravan’s progress into the heart of the country has encouraged more caravans to form. Two caravans traversing southern Mexico merged as one after arriving in the town of Matías Romero, some 415 miles from Mexico City, according to Mexican media reports.

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Protest in Downtown El Paso against militarization of US-Mexico border

Observers studying Central American migration say the caravans offer protection in numbers because Mexico can be perilous for most migrants. Human rights organizations are providing oversight as the caravans progress through Mexico. It also costs less as migrants can skip paying a “coyote” to take them north.

“I always wanted to take the trip [north,] but didn’t dare to do it alone,” said Gabriela López, 20, a Honduran migrant heading north with an 11-month-old baby. López added that she made little money selling clothes in a market and that extortion demands from gangs have eroded her meager earnings. She also noted that coyotes were asking for $6,000 to get her to the U.S, “but I didn’t have that kind of money.”

In addition to temporary work visas, Mexico has offered caravan participants healthcare and the chance for them to enroll their children in school.\

Some of the applicants for asylum appear to have left the city of Tapachula near the Guatemala border, where their claims were made, and have joined the caravan still in southern Mexico, the Mexican newspaper El Universal reported Friday.