Trump gloats as caravan breaks up
Migrants’ journey to end in Mexico City
MEXICO CITY: The caravan of Central American migrants that President Donald Trump has portrayed as an emblem of flawed immigration policy in the United States began to splinter on Thursday, as hundreds of people departed the town where their journey had stalled.
The movement’s organisers insisted that the caravan would regroup in the Mexican city of Puebla in the next few days before continuing on to Mexico City, where it will officially end.
Mr Trump has been fixated on the caravan this week, making it a recurring motif in his tweets, warning that it represented a grave threat to the sovereignty of the United States. He has used the issue to justify sending the military to reinforce the southwest border, a rare occurrence.
On Thursday morning, he returned to the subject, declaring that the caravan had mostly dissipated, even though organizers estimated at the time that there were still some 800 migrants gathered at the sports complex.
“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,” the president wrote on Twitter.
Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Mr Trump said he had pressured the Mexican government to act against the caravan, a claim that drew a firm rebuttal from President Enrique Pena Nieto, which said the caravan’s halt in Matias Romero was a decision of the organizers, not the result of domestic or international pressure.
Mr Pena Nieto sharply criticized Trump’s plan to send National Guard troops to the border. “If your recent statements are due to frustration over domestic politics, your laws, or your Congress, direct yourself to them, not to Mexicans”, he said on Thursday.
Mr Trump also asserted on Thursday that women migrating north were being raped “at levels that nobody’s ever seen before”. Caravan organisers and participants said they had heard of no such allegations in the 11 days since they began their northward march.
In what has become an annual rite, often around Easter week, hundreds of migrants, most of them Hondurans, started their northward procession from the southern border city of Tapachula on March 25. Under the aegis of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, a transnational advocacy group, the migrants moved north en masse — on foot and trains.
The size of the group — 1,200 or larger — offered security for participants against criminals and other perils on the migrant trail. For the organisers, the multitude guaranteed more attention to the plight of the migrants, many of whom were fleeing hardship and violence.
The caravan’s organisers originally hoped to lead the group as far as the southwest border of the United States, which many hoped to cross one way or another. Based on past caravans, however, the organisers expected that the vast majority of participants would drop out along the way, choosing instead to travel in smaller groups.
But as the group grew so big, including hundreds of children and infants, the organisers paused the procession here last weekend, even before it caught Trump’s attention.
The migration authorities, taking advantage of the lull, began registering the migrants this week and issuing them letters of safe passage. The documents offer protection from deportation for three weeks to a month, depending on whether the migrant intends to apply for legal immigration status in Mexico or leave the country — which for many migrants means applying for asylum in the United States or otherwise trying to cross the border.
Told about Mr Trump’s tweet on Thursday declaring the end of the caravan, Irineo Mujica, Mexico director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, shook his head in annoyance.
“This man is completely wrong,” he said in an interview. “We’re going to keep going”.
This conflict with the the US president has brought this issue into even sharper focus. “We’re going to regroup in Puebla and send a message to Trump”, Mr Mujica said.
Alessandra Lopez, 26, said she hoped to board one of the overnight buses to Puebla where she intends to seek guidance on how to prepare file for asylum in the United States.
Lopez, who is one of the dozen transgender migrants, said a criminal gang tried to force her into prostitution and drug dealing.