Migrant caravan groups arrive at border
Tijuana shelters already at capacity
TIJUANA, Mexico — Migrants in a caravan of Central Americans arrived in Tijuana by the hundreds Wednesday, getting their first glimpse of the robust U.S. military presence that awaits them after President Donald Trump ordered thousands of troops to the border.
Several hundred people from the caravan made their way to a shelter on the Mexican side near the border to line up for food. Doctors checked those fighting colds and other ailments, while several dozen migrants, mostly single men, spent the night at a Tijuana beach cut by a towering border wall of metal bars. Several Border Patrol agents in San Diego watched them through the barrier.
The first wave of migrants in the caravan, a central theme of the recent U.S. election, began arriving in Tijuana in recent days and their numbers have grown each day. The bulk of the main caravan appeared to be about 1,100 miles from the border, but has been moving hundreds of miles a day on trucks and buses.
Many of the new arrivals were waiting in Tijuana for caravan leaders to arrive and provide guidance on options for immigration to the U.S., including seeking asylum. Some said they might cross illegally.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited U.S. troops posted at the border in Texas and said the deployment provides good training for war, despite criticism that the effort is a waste of taxpayer money and a political stunt. Most of the troops are in Texas, more than 1,500 miles from where the caravan is arriving.
The first arrivals generally received a warm welcome from Tijuana, despite the fact that its shelter system is at capacity. The city’s secretary of economic development has said there are about 3,000 jobs for migrants who want to stay.
The Central Americans in the caravan are the latest migrants to arrive in Tijuana with the hope of crossing into the U.S. Tijuana shelters in 2016 housed Haitians who came by the thousands with plans to get to the U.S. Since then, several thousand Haitians have remained in Tijuana, finding work. Some have married local residents and enrolled in local universities.
“Mexico has been excellent; we have no complaint about Mexico. The United States remains to be seen,” said Josue Vargas, a migrant from Honduras who pulled into Tijuana Wednesday after more than a month on the road.
Ilse Marilu, 24, arrived in Tijuana late Tuesday with her 3-year-old daughter, having joined the caravan with a large contingent from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. She walked several miles Tuesday in a fruitless search for space in a shelter before reaching the beach plaza. A Mexican couple dropped off a tent that her daughter and three other children used to sleep in as an evening chill set in.
She planned to stay in Tijuana until caravan leaders arrived and offered help on how to seek asylum in the U.S.
“We are going to enter through the front door,” Marilu said, insisting she would never try to enter the country illegally.