Latest caravan of migrants sets sights on Mexico, U.S.
AGUA CALIENTE, GUATEMALA
More than 1,000 Hon— durans were walking and hitchhiking through Guatemala on Wednesday, heading toward the Mexico border as part of a new caravan of migrants hoping to reach the United States.
Guatemala’s migration authority said just over 1,300 people were able to register at the border and pass through frontier controls under the watchful eyes of about 200 police and sol- diers at the Agua Caliente crossing. Some migrants told The Associated Press that they crossed informally elsewhere.
Miria Zelaya, who left the Honduran city of Colon and was traveling with 12 relatives, said she did not know what sort of work she hopes to find in the United States but was not dismayed by tougher immigration policies under President Donald Trump.
“That does not discourage me,” Zelaya said. “The need is greater.”
Migrants leaving Central America’s Northern Triangle nations of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala routinely cite widespread poverty, lack of opportunity and rampant gang violence as their motivation.
Many in the group registered for 90-day visas in Guatemala, saying they felt it would offer peace of mind on the 300-mile trek to Mexico’s southern border.
Hector Alvarado, a 25-year-old announcer, said he had been shut out of job opportunities for belonging to the political opposition and felt forced to leave to find work. He learned about the caravan on Facebook, said goodbye to relatives and hit the road.
“My loved o nes have already cried over my leav- ing,” Alvarado said. “Now I have to press on.”
The latest trek north comes as U.S. President Don- ald Trump has declared that there is a crisis at the south- ern border to justify construction of his long-promised border wall. Trump’s request for billions of dol- lars to that end has resulted in a standoff with Congress that has forced a partial government shutdown.
The fate that awaits the migrants at the Mexico-U.S. border is uncertain. Previous caravans last year have quietly dwindled, with many having gone home to Central America or put down roots in Mexico. Many others — nearly half, according to U.S. Border Patrol arrest records — have sought to enter the U.S. illegally.
About 6,000 Central Americans reached Tijuana in November amid conflict on both sides of the border over their presence in the Mexican city across from San Diego. As of earlier this week, fewer than 700 remained at a former outdoor concert venue in Tijuana that the Mexican government set up as a shelter to house them.
Mexico has issued humanitarian visas to about 2,900 migrants from last fall’s caravan, many of whom are now working legally there with visas.
Also Wednesday, about 100 migrants set out as a group from the capital of El Salvador, hoping to join the larger group from Honduras.