Migrants in for long haul as caravan halted in Mexico

MEXICO: The migrant caravan of more than 1000 central American migrants in Mexico has disbanded, but most aren’t just turning around.

‘‘It just isn’t possible for us to go back to Honduras,’’ said Cecilia Hernandez, 38. ‘‘When the gang says they’ll kill you, they mean it.’’

A local street gang closed in on her extended family when they failed to pay extortion money. Threats culminated in the kidnapping and rape of her niece and the gang members promising to do the same to her own daughter. She could see only one option.

Hernandez was initially worried that she, her husband, and her two young children would be sent home when Donald Trump, the US president, called for the caravan to be stopped in southern Mexico.

But they have since received a ‘‘humanitarian visa,’’ a permit from Mexican migration authorities that allows a migrant to travel through the country for 30 days.

After the convoy travelled up to Mexico, Trump ordered thousands of National Guard members to be sent to the border to protect against the perceived threat. On Saturday, Texas began deploying 250 troops to its border with Mexico, and funding was authorised for up to 4000 National Guard troops for the operation.

Hernandez and hundreds of other migrants arrived in central Mexican city Puebla and began meeting with immigration attorneys on Saturday, trying to figure out if they met standards to claim asylum in Mexico or the US. The caravan officially disbanded with a rally in Mexico City yesterday. Hernandez and her family fear Mexico isn’t far enough from the gangs – the US is still their destination.

‘‘We’ll travel by bus since we have the permit and we’ll try to stay in groups for safety,’’ she said. ‘‘We’re going to hand ourselves in at the border because we know we want asylum.’’

Trump’s anti-immigrant stance isn’t dissuading people from making the journey. ‘‘What Trump misses is why people are coming,’’ says Maureen Meyer, director for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America. ‘‘The mindset that we can somehow keep everybody away without addressing root causes of why they’re coming is very short-sighted.’’

Still one of the most murderous countries in the world, asylum requests from Honduras increased by 25 per cent in 2017, and after tainted presidential elections late last year there has been a 66 per cent spike in undocumented Hondurans arriving in the US.