Mexico to look after migrants
As Mexico wrestles with what to do with a caravan of more than 5000 Central American migrants camped out at a sports complex in the border city of Tijuana, President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s government has signalled that it would be willing to house the migrants on Mexican soil while they apply for asylum in the United States – a key demand of US President Donald Trump.
Mexico’s new foreign minister also called on the Trump administration to contribute to development projects to help create jobs in Central America to stem the flow of migrants from the impoverished region, suggesting an appropriate figure would start at US$20 billion (NZ$29.4b).
‘‘We cannot determine at what pace people are interviewed’’ by US officials as part of the asylum process, incoming Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said yesterday. US border inspectors are processing fewer than 100 asylum claims a day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego, creating a backlog of thousands.
‘‘So, what do we have to do?’’ Ebrard asked. ‘‘Prepare ourselves to assume that a good part of them are going to be in this area of Mexico for the coming months.
‘‘We have to support local authorities’’ in housing and feeding the migrants, he said.
Lopez Obrador, who won a crushing July election victory and will take office on Sunday, built his political career on defending the poor. He now faces the difficult task of placating Trump on the migrant issue while upholding Mexico’s longstanding position of demanding better treatment for migrants.
Ebrard said a key administration goal was securing a US commitment to development projects in Honduras, where the vast majority of the migrants in the caravan come from, as well as neighbouring Guatemala, El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America.
The move came after US border agents fired tear gas to turn back a group of migrants who had breached the border over the weekend. The incident prompted Mexican authorities to step up the police presence around the Tijuana shelter.
The migrants themselves are urgently exploring their options amid a growing feeling that they have little hope of making successful asylum bids in the US or of crossing the border illegally.
There was a steady line yesterday outside a tent housing the International Organisation for Migration, where officials were offering assistance to those who wanted to return to their home countries.
US President Donald Trump has strongly defended the use of tear gas at the border.
‘‘[The guards] were being rushed by some very tough people and they used tear gas,’’ Trump said. ‘‘Here’s the bottom line: nobody is coming into our country unless they come in legally.
‘‘Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it’s going to be formed and they were running up with a child?’’ the president asked. He said it was ‘‘a very minor form of the tear gas itself’’ that he had been assured was ‘‘very safe’’.
Without offering evidence, Trump claimed that some of the women in the confrontation were not parents but ‘‘grabbers’’, who stole children so they could have a better chance of being granted asylum in the US.
Trump rails against migrant caravans as dangerous groups of mostly single men. The city of Tijuana said that of the 5851 migrants at the temporary shelter, 1074 were women, 1023 were children and 3754 were men, including fathers travelling with families.