Migrants ponder: Mexico stay or U.S.
MEXICO CITY — Central American migrants on Wednesday continued to straggle in for a rest stop at a Mexico City stadium, where about 4,500 continue to weigh offers to stay in Mexico against the desire of many to reach the U.S. border.
Mexico City officials said they expected as many as 1,000 more might arrive at the Jesus Martinez stadium as lagging members of the caravan trail in, their journeys slowed by difficulties in getting rides or by hopping aboard trucks that veered off their route.
Angel Eduardo Cubas of La Ceiba, Honduras, reached the shelter early Wednesday after being split off from the caravan. Like many migrants, he had to find his way back to the relative safety of the caravan in an unfamiliar country, with no money.
“There were a lot of people who got dropped off somewhere else,” said Cubas, who at one point lost his two children, 2 and 6, before finding them again. “It was ugly, going around looking” for his kids, the 28-year-old father said.
Members of the caravans of migrants, which President Donald Trump made a central issue in U.S. midterm elections, declined to take an immediate decision Tuesday night on whether to stay in Mexico or continue north, opting to remain in the capital at least a couple more days.
“Nobody is in more of a hurry than me to get going (to the U.S. border), but we have to go all together,” said Sara Rodriguez of Colon, Honduras.
Rodriguez, 34, fled her country with her 16-yearold daughter Emily, after the girl began to draw unwanted attention from a drug trafficker who just got of prison and pledged to go after her. Rodriguez left her 7-yearold son with her husband in Honduras. “Even though it hurts to leave my son ... I had to protect her,” Rodriguez said, weeping.
Mexico has offered refuge, asylum or work visas to the migrants and the government said 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families while they wait for the 45-day application process for a more permanent status.
Rina Valenzuela, who is from El Salvador, listened attentively to aid workers from the nonprofit Institute for Women in Migration as they explained the difficulties of securing asylum in the U.S. She decided she would better off applying for refuge in Mexico.
“Why go fight there, with as much effort and as much suffering as we have gone through, just for them to turn me back?” she said.
Employees from the capital’s human rights commission registered new arrivals with biographical data and placed yellow bracelets on wrists to keep count of the growing crowd.
Smaller groups were trailing hundreds of miles to the south; officials estimated about 7,000 in all were in the country in the caravans.