Central American migrants
hitch a ride on a tanker truck Tuesday in Niltepec, Mexico, as they continue toward the United States. A second wave of migrants has also begun the trek after crossing from Guatemala into Mexico.
NILTEPEC, Mexico — More than 1,000 people in a second migrant caravan that forged its way across the river from Guatemala began walking through southern Mexico on Tuesday and reached the city of Tapachula — some 250 miles behind a larger group and more than 1,000 miles from the closest U.S. border.
Gerbert Hinestrosa, 54, a straw-hatted migrant from Santa Barbara, Honduras, was traveling with his wife and teenage son in the newest group. Hinestrosa said he realized how hard it would be to reach his goal.
“Right now I feel good,” he said. “We have barely started, but I think it is going to be very difficult.”
Members of the latest caravan say they aren’t trying to catch up with the first because they believe it has been too passive and they don’t want to be controlled. The activist group Pueblo Sin Fronteras has been accompanying the first group and trying to help it organize.
The first, larger caravan of about 4,000 mainly Honduran migrants passed through Tapachula about 10 days ago and set up camp Tuesday in the Oaxaca state city of Juchitan, which was devastated by an earthquake in September 2017.
The two groups combined
represent just a few days’ worth of the average flow of migrants to the United States. Similar caravans also have occurred regularly over the years, passing largely unnoticed, but the new ones have become a hot-button political issue amid an unprecedented push-back from U.S. President Donald Trump.
With just a week before U.S. midterm elections, the Pentagon announced it will deploy 5,200 troops to the Southwest border, and Trump has continued to tweet and speak about the migrants.
On Monday, he said he wants to build tent cities to house asylum seekers. And on Tuesday he floated the possibility of ending the constitutional right to U.S. citizenship for babies born in the country to noncitizens.
Levin Guillen, a 23-yearold from Corinto, Honduras, was part of the first caravan, whose members set off Tuesday morning walking and hitching rides on the highway through Mexico’s narrow, windy southern isthmus. They stuffed themselves into truck beds and sprinted alongside semi-trailer rigs, trying to grab hold and pull themselves up.
The first caravan was still about 900 miles from the nearest U.S. crossing at McAllen, Texas, and possibly much farther if it heads elsewhere.
Worn down from long miles of walking and frustrated by the slow progress, many have been dropping out and returning home or applying for protected status in Mexico.
The group is already significantly diminished from its estimated peak at over 7,000-strong. A caravan in the spring ultimately fizzled to just about 200 people who reached the U.S. border at San Diego.
Hondurans in the group spoke of fleeing poverty and gang violence.
Representatives have demanded “safe and dignified” transportation to Mexico City, but the Mexican government has shown no inclination to assist — with the exception of its migrant protection agency that gave some stragglers rides to the next town over the weekend.
Deputy foreign ministers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico met Tuesday and agreed to coordinate “special attention” for the caravan, guaranteeing human rights, humanitarian assistance and “a safe, orderly and regular migration” in accordance with each country’s laws.