Court blocks Trump’s asylum ban
Migrants camped in Tijuana after travelling in a caravan to reach the US were weighing their options yesterday after a US court blocked President Donald Trump’s asylum ban for illegal border crossers.
Many said they have no intention of breaking the law, but were feeling pressure after anti-migrant protests in this Mexican border city and claims by Trump and the Tijuana mayor that the caravan harbours gang members and criminals, something they strongly deny.
Keven Paul Mejia, a 27-year-old former security guard from the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, said there were some delinquents travelling with the group of several thousand who smoke marijuana and get drunk.
But, he said, most are like him, just hoping to land a job in the US. ‘‘There are more of us who are good, than bad,’’ Mejia said.
Herson Cordonez, a 29-year-old Honduran, said the actions of a few migrants were tainting the image of the 4000 to 6000 in the caravan, not all of whom have yet reached Tijuana. ‘‘We are not criminals, we are migrant workers,’’ Cordonez said, adding that he was considering trying to get into Canada if the US doesn’t want him.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen yesterday visited a Pacific coast beach in San Diego, examining up close the newly installed razor wire wrapped around a towering border wall that cuts across the sand. On the Tijuana side, dozens of onlookers gathered with cellphones to take pictures of her arrival through the fence.
‘‘This is a border wall with row upon row of concertina wire,’’ Nielsen said. ‘‘Make no mistake, we are very serious. You will not get into our country illegally.’’
She said there were as many as 500 criminals and gang member in the groups heading northwards, but she refused to answer questions about how they were identified or what crimes they had committed.
A day earlier, Tijuana officials said they had arrested 34 caravan members for drug possession, public intoxication, disturbing the peace and resisting police, and they would be deported to their home countries.
Nielsen said there were 6200 migrants already camped in Tijuana and another 3000 in Mexicali, a few hours’ drive to the east. She said most were young single men who have no legitimate claim to US asylum, adding that wanting to get a job in the US or be reunited with family were not reasons to be allowed in. –