Migrants nix Mexico offer

ARRIAGA, Mexico — More than a hundred Mexican federal officers carrying plastic shields abandoned a blockade they had formed on a bridge yesterday, allowing a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants to advance toward the United States. The officers ended the standoff after representatives from Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission told police that a rural stretch of highway without shade, toilets or water was no place for migrants to entertain a government offer of asylum in Mexico, which is why police said they set up the blockade. Police boarded buses and headed further down the highway, while migrants cheered and vowed to trek all the way to the U.S. border despite fierce opposition from President Trump. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto launched a program Friday dubbed “You are home,” which promises shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to Central Americans who agree to stay in the southern Mexico states of Chiapas or Oaxaca. Police Commissioner Benjamin Grajeda said that authorities only blocked the highway yesterday to tell people about the offer. “Here in this truck right now you can get help,” he said. Thousands of migrants in the city of Arriaga rejected the plan Friday night, but said they could be willing to discuss it again once they reach Mexico City. Some fear they will be deported if they take advantage of the program. The caravan is now trying to strike out for Tapanatepec, about 29 miles up the road. Many members have been travelling for more than two weeks. Orbelina Orellana, a migrant from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, said she and her husband left three children behind and had decided to continue north one way or another. “Our destiny is to get to the bor- der,” she said. The caravan still must travel 1,000 miles to reach the nearest U.S. border crossing at McAllen, Texas, and the trip could be twice as long if the group of some 4,000 migrants heads for the TijuanaSan Diego frontier, as another caravan did earlier this year. Only about 200 in that group made it to the border.

AFP / GETTY IMAGES EN MASSE: Honduran migrants, above, in a caravan headed to the U.S. leave Arriaga, Mexico, yesterday. Migrants climb atop a truck, right, as the caravan continues its slow march toward the U.S. border, outside Arriaga yesterday.