Migrants resume their march towards US border

A GROWING throng of Central American migrants resumed their advance toward the US border in southern Mexico yesterday, overwhelming Mexican government attempts to stop them.

Their numbers swelled to about 5,000 overnight and at first light they started walking toward the Mexican town of Tapachula, 10 abreast in a line stretching approximately a mile.

Several hundred more had applied for refugee status in Mexico and an estimated 1,500 were still on the Guatemalan side of the Suchiate River, hoping to enter legally.

The decision to re-form the migrant caravan capped a day in which Mexican authorities again refused mass entry to the migrants, instead accepting small groups for asylum processing and giving out 45-day visitor permits.

Authorities handed out numbers for people to be processed in a strategy seen at US border posts when dealing with large numbers of migrants.

But many became impatient and circumvented the border gate, crossing the river on rafts or by swimming in full view of the hundreds of Mexican police on the bridge. Some paid locals the equivalent of $1.25 to ferry them across. They were not detained on reaching the Mexican bank. Outside Tapachula about 500 officers gathered along the highway but said their instructions were to maintain traffic, not stop the caravan.

Migrants cite widespread poverty and gang violence in Honduras as their reasons for joining the caravan, which has triggered an increase in anti-immigrant rhetoric from Donald Trump.

The US president has threatened to cut aid to the region, deploy the military and close the Us-mexico border if authorities did not stop the migrants.

Tweeting last night, Mr Trump said: “Full efforts are being made to stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing our Southern Border. People have to apply for asylum in Mexico first, and if they fail to do that, the US will turn them away.” Suggesting the caravan was politically motivated, he added: “The Caravans are a disgrace to the Democrat Party. Change the immigration laws NOW!”