How a Central American migrant caravan grew so big that it unintentionally may have backfired
CLOSE
Central American migrants gathered inside and outside a church in Puebla, Mexico on April 7, 2018, for a caravan hoped to travel to the U.s.S border drawing the ire of President Trump.
Nick Oza/azcentral.com
PUEBLA, Mexico — A caravan of migrants from Central America to the U.S. border had become an annual event that didn’t attract much attention — until this year.
When the caravan set off on foot March 25 from Tapachula, Chiapas, through Mexico toward the country’s northern border, instead of the usual 200 to 300 people, the group had swelled to as many as 1,600. The travelers stick together partly for protection and partly to make a political statement.
What changed this year was an explosion of participants from Honduras, an impoverished country of 9.3 million people where gang violence has made the murder rate one of the highest in the world.
An aggravating factor: A political crisis that November’s presidential election triggered. Many Hondurans believe the U.S.-backed president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, stole the election in winning a razor-thin victory over his main rival, Salvador Nasralla. Several days of violent protests followed.
â–º April 7: As migrant caravan shelters in Mexico, doctors treat fevers, chills
â–º April 7: Migrant caravan in Mexico smaller, but not disbanded
â–º April 6: Texas, Arizona deploying troops to Mexican border
“I expected (the caravan) to be bigger,” but not this big, said organizer Alex Mensing with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, the group that has organized annual migrant caravans including this year’s. “The percentage of Hondurans is way higher. It’s been like 75 or 80%. … That is way higher than it’s ever been.”
The size of the group caught organizers off guard and triggered a negative reaction from the United States far bigger than they expected, even from a president already well known for his hard-line stance on immigration and promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Immigration agents pick up reporter after criminal charges dropped
â–º April 5: Trump wants 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops on Mexican border
Guerrero Figueroa said his 17-year-old nephew was murdered about three years ago for refusing to join a gang.
Gangs control every aspect of life, his wife said. Hondurans are afraid to leave their homes in the evening for fear of being robbed or killed.
“After 9 p.m., you can’t leave your house. It’s just too dangerous,” she said.
Sick of the violence and political instability in Honduras, the couple had been living part time as illegal immigrants in Mexico in the town of Pijijiapan, Chiapas, Mexico’s most southern state.Â
There they ran a small bakery selling pastries to migrants from Central America passing through.
After selling the bicycle he used to peddle pastries, Guerrero Figueroa and his wife joined the migrant caravan hoping to travel with the group more than 2,000 miles through Mexico to Tijuana, where they want to open a new pastry business.
“There are many more commercial opportunities there,” he said.
Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops to the border dumbfounded him, he said.Â
In the early 1990s, he lived in the Los Angles area for a few years as an illegal immigrant and found Americans to be good-hearted people who valued the hard work of immigrants.
“I don’t know what planet he comes from,” Guerrero Figueroa said. “People go to the United States to work and because there are opportunities. It’s as if he doesn’t see us as human beings.”
The annual caravan has several goals, Mensing said.
â–º April 5: Trump is not first president to deploy National Guard at Mexico border
â–º April 5: Mexican president to Trump: ‘Threatening attitudes’ not justified
The first is to provide protection to migrants fleeing extreme poverty and violence in Central America.
Under pressure from the United States, Mexico has established growing numbers of immigration checkpoints to catch and deport Central American migrants. Criminals frequently attack migrants who try to circumvent the checkpoints, Mensing said.
President Trump orders National Guard to the Mexican border
â–º April 3: Trump keeps focus on caravan of Honduran asylum seekers
“Essentially, people have the right to arrive at the international border to have their asylum case evaluated,” said Allegra Love, an immigration lawyer from Santa Fe, New Mexico, who traveled to Puebla to meet with migrants from the caravan. “They don’t have the right to political asylum, but they have the right to ask for it.”
At ports of entry, migrants who ask for asylum meet with border agents, “and let them know they have fear of returning to their home country.” Migrants who then pass “credible fear” interviews are allowed to open a case for political asylum, she said.
“That might be in detention, that might be out of detention. It really depends on a case-by-case basis,” Love said.
In one-on-one meetings with migrants in the caravan Love said she has heard “a lot of stories of violence and threats from the gang or police.”
How many of the migrants might qualify for asylum is hard to say.
“I’ve met some people with extraordinarily strong asylum claims, and I’ve met some people who don’t have asylum claims at all,” she said. “And I would say the majority of people are in the middle where it would depend a lot on the judge they get, whether they get a lawyer or not, whether they are detained, how much proof they can get.”
Lawyers also were encouraging people to learn about asylum in Mexico.
“For some families, requesting asylum here might be a better option,” Love said.
The caravan plans to continue to Mexico City, where it will end following several planned demonstrations, including one at the Honduran embassy.
â–º April 2: President revives rhetorical war over Mexico, immigration, DACA
â–º April 2: Immigration? Don’t expect much action from Congress before midterms
Meanwhile, Guerrero Figueroa said he had no intention of crossing into the United States once he makes it to Tijuana, even though he has a sister in Houston.
“Trump doesn’t want us there,” he said.
Follow Daniel González on Twitter: @azdangonzalez
Posted!
Honduran family William Figueroa, 38, with his wife Iris Banegas, 38, and their children, Gerson Palma, 8, and Josue Figueroa, 15, at the church in Puebla, Mexico, that has been converted into a shelter for several hundred migrants from Central America, many of home had hoped to travel to the U.S. border, drawing the ire of President Trump.Â
In this April 4, 2018, photo, the Zelaya siblings, from El Salvador, Nayeli, right, Anderson, center, and Daniela, huddle together on a soccer field, at the sports club where Central American migrants traveling with the annual “Stations of the Cross” caravan are camped out, in Matias Romero, Oaxaca State, Mexico. The children’s father, Elmer Zelaya, 38, said the family is awaiting temporary transit visas that would allow them to continue to the U.S. border, where they hope to request asylum and join relatives in New York.Â
Salvadoran migrant Alexis Cea, 25, poses for a picture wearing a shirt featuring an eagle printed over the pattern of an American flag, at the sports club where Central American migrants traveling with the annual Stations of the Cross caravan have been camped out, in Matias Romero, Oaxaca State, Mexico, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. The Mexican government began handing out transit or humanitarian visas to people in a caravan of Central American migrants, and said the procession of 1,000 or so migrants that drew criticism from President Donald Trump had begun to disperse.Â
Elmer Zelaya of El Salvador prepares a breakfast of eggs and sausage for his family of five, at the sports club where Central American migrants traveling with the annual “Stations of the Cross” caravan are camped out, in Matias Romero, Oaxaca State, Mexico, Wednesday, April 4, 2018. Zelaya said he, his wife, and their three children are awaiting temporary transit visas that would allow them to continue to the U.S. border, where they hope to request asylum and join relatives in New York.Â
Patsy Guardado, left, 15, and Yosselin Alegria, 19, both from Honduras, pose for a picture at a sports club where Central American migrants traveling with the annual “Stations of the Cross” caravan are camped out in Matias Romero, Oaxaca State, Mexico, Tuesday, April 3, 2018.Â
1 of 94
2 of 94
3 of 94
4 of 94
5 of 94
6 of 94
7 of 94
8 of 94
9 of 94
10 of 94
11 of 94
12 of 94
13 of 94
14 of 94
15 of 94
16 of 94
17 of 94
18 of 94
19 of 94
20 of 94
21 of 94
22 of 94
23 of 94
24 of 94
25 of 94
26 of 94
27 of 94
28 of 94
29 of 94
30 of 94
31 of 94
32 of 94
33 of 94
34 of 94
35 of 94
36 of 94
37 of 94
38 of 94
39 of 94
40 of 94
41 of 94
42 of 94
43 of 94
44 of 94
45 of 94
46 of 94
47 of 94
48 of 94
49 of 94
50 of 94
51 of 94
52 of 94
53 of 94
54 of 94
55 of 94
56 of 94
57 of 94
58 of 94
59 of 94
60 of 94
61 of 94
62 of 94
63 of 94
64 of 94
65 of 94
66 of 94
67 of 94
68 of 94
69 of 94
70 of 94
71 of 94
72 of 94
73 of 94
74 of 94
75 of 94
76 of 94
77 of 94
78 of 94
79 of 94
80 of 94
81 of 94
82 of 94
83 of 94
84 of 94
85 of 94
86 of 94
87 of 94
88 of 94
89 of 94
90 of 94
91 of 94
92 of 94
93 of 94
94 of 94
Â