Migrant caravan in Mexico smaller, but not disbanded, as travelers meet with lawyers
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Thousands of people are walking towards a better life, but now the numbers are dwindling in response to Trump’s U.S. border threats.
USA TODAY
MEXICO CITY — A caravan of hundreds of Central American migrants traveling through Mexico has diminished since angering President Trump earlier this week and helping prompt him to deploy National Guard troops to the southwest border.
Many of the migrants fleeing poverty and gang-violence in Honduras and other Central American countries plan to remain in Mexico, where the government has been processing documents to allow them to stay, according to multiple posts on social media.
But some of the migrants are determined to continue on their journey all the way to the U.S. border to apply for asylum in this country.
“I would say the caravan has not disbanded for now in the sense that planned activities are still taking place,†said Alex Mensing, an organizer with Pueblo Sin Fronteras.
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By Friday afternoon, roughly 630 migrants — about half are women and children — arrived via bus in Puebla, about a two-hour drive south of here. They are staying in four shelters.
This weekend, they will be meeting one on one with volunteer Mexican and U.S. lawyers. The lawyers will explain the asylum laws in each country to see if the migrants might qualify, according to Jordi Ruiz Cirera, a freelance photographer who said he has been traveling with the caravan.
On Monday, the migrants plan to head for Mexico City, where the caravan will end after a series of demonstrations participants plan to hold at key sites to call attention to the plight of migrants fleeing Central America.
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Mensing said it’s unclear how many migrants will try to enter the United States and apply for asylum. That will depend on the meetings with lawyers.Â
Many already have decided to stay in Mexico, he said. But some have relatives in the U.S. and are expected to continue their journey.
On Thursday, Trump had tweeted that the migrant caravan had disbanded under pressure from Mexico and the United States.
The Caravan is largely broken up thanks to the strong immigration laws of Mexico and their willingness to use them so as not to cause a giant scene at our Border. Because of the Trump Administrations actions, Border crossings are at a still UNACCEPTABLE 46 year low. Stop drugs!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 5, 2018
“The caravan is largely broken up thanks to the strong immigration laws of Mexico and their willingness to use them so as not to cause a giant scene at our border,” Trump tweeted. “Because of the Trump administration’s actions, Border crossings are at a still UNACCEPTABLE 46 year low. Stop drugs!”
At its peak, organizers estimated more than 1,000 migrants had joined the caravan. On March 25, the caravan left Tapachula, a town in the southernmost Mexican state of Chiapas bordering Guatemala.
Organizers originally said the caravan planned to travel through Mexico to the U.S. border, a journey of more than 2,000 miles, ending in Caborca, in the state of Sonora, south of Arizona.
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The migrants arrived in Puebla, the capital of the state with the same name, after leaving the town of Matias Romero in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Raul Gonzalez, 58, a Mexico City resident who drives a shuttle van for a living, said the plight of Central American migrants is “a very complicated issue.â€
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In a series of tweets, Trump blamed Democrats, Mexico and Central American countries for allowing undocumented immigrants and drugs to flow into this country. He threatened to end the North American Free Trade Agreement to put pressure on Mexico to do more to stop migrants from Central America from reaching the U.S.
The tweets culminated with Trump signing a presidential proclamation Wednesday directing his administration to work with border governors to deploy National Guard troops to help guard the Southwest border.
In the proclamation, Trump characterized the arrival of migrants from Central America as a border-security threat on par with opioids and other illicit drugs “flowing across our Southern border” and transnational gangs including MS-13.
“The situation at the border has now reached a point of crisis,” Trump wrote in a presidential memorandum. “The lawlessness that continues at our Southern border is fundamentally incompatible with the safety, security, and sovereignty of the American people.”
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto this week urged Trump to stop with the “threatening or disrespectful attitudes” and constructively discuss the issues with Mexico.
“If your recent statements are the result of frustration due to domestic policy issues, to your laws or to your Congress, it is to them that you should turn to, not to Mexicans,†Peña Nieto said to Trump in a video statement. “We’re not going to permit that negative rhetoric to define our actions. We’re only going to work in the best interest of the Mexicans.â€
The Mexican Senate also adopted a resolution urging its government to stop working with the United States on illegal immigration and drug trafficking, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
This is not the first time a president has deployed National Guard troops to the Southwest border. In 2006, former President George W. Bush deployed about 6,000 National Guard troops in response to requests for help securing the border from the governors of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.
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In 2010, former President Barack Obama sent about 1,200 troops to the Southwest border to help support the Border Patrol.
But conditions at the border were much different then, said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service under former President Bill Clinton. She is now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a research group.
Border Patrol apprehensions are way down, Meissner said, and the Border Patrol has far more agents.Â
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In 2006, the Border Patrol recorded more than 1 million apprehensions of undocumented border crossers, the majority of them from Mexico
In fiscal year 2017, Border Patrol apprehensions fell to 310,000, the lowest levels since the 1970s. The flow of undocumented immigrants from Mexico has dropped off sharply while the number of migrants from Central America has increased.Â
Meanwhile, Border Patrol staffing, meanwhile from 12,349 in fiscal year 2006Â to 19,437 in fiscal year 2017, according to Border Patrol data.
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Bush ordered National Guard troops to help shore up the Border Patrol while additional agents that Congress had authorized were being hired and trained, Meissner said.
Obama was prompted to deploy National Guard troops mostly because of political pressure after Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was killed while working near the border, Meissner said.
“Trump’s decision to deploy troops to the Southwest border is quite disconnected,” Meissner said. “It is disconnected from facts on the ground. This image that the country is being invaded is not what’s taking place.”
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Meissner acknowledged that the U.S. faces new challenges because of the ongoing arrival of Central American migrants fleeing poverty and violence in their countries. She said the U.S. should be working with Mexico to address what she characterized as a regional problem.
“Mexico is doing law enforcement not simply to please the U.S. but because it has its own important self-interests. We should be supporting them in that and not jeopardizing it,” she said.
Follow Daniel González on Twitter: @azdangonzalez
Posted!
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
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