Sickness, fear whittle away at migrant caravan in Mexico

MAPASTEPEC, Mexico — Little by little, sickness, fear and police harassment are whittling down the migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. border, with many of the 4,000 to 5,000 migrants who resumed their journey Thursday complaining of exhaustion.

The group, many with children and even pushing toddlers in strollers, departed this town at dawn, with more than 1,000 miles still to go before they reach the U.S. border.

They have advanced just 95 miles as the crow flies since thousands burst across Mexico’s southernmost border several days earlier.

With the migrants still weeks, if not months, from reaching the U.S. border, the White House was planning to send 800 or more troops to the southern border at the direction of President Donald Trump, who has been stoking fears about illegal immigration ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections.

On Thursday, the long column of migrants stretched for more than a mile as they left the town square in this town in far southern Mexico, where many spent the night. The municipality of some 45,000 people, along with churches and volunteers, offered some medicine and donated water, clothing baby formula and baby bottles.

As they reached the highway, families with young children packed sidewalks asking for donations and rides to the next stop, Pijijiapan, about 25 miles farther ahead.

Melkin Claros, 34, was traveling with his 7-year old son and a teenage nephew and remained steadfast in his goal. “Everyone’s objective is to arrive (in the United States),” he said, adding that he planned to request asylum because gangs made it impossible to live in Honduras.

“It’s true you risk your life a lot here, but we risk more in our country.”

Still, Mexican officials say nearly 1,700 have dropped out of the caravan to apply for asylum in Mexico, and a few hundred have accepted government offers to bus them back to their home countries.

Carlos Roberto Hernandez of Yoro province in Honduras dropped out after developing a rumbling cough during the scorching daytime heat and evening rains.

“We got hit by rain, and ever since then I’ve had a cold,” Hernandez said. Asked Wednesday if he would make another attempt to reach the U.S., he said emphatically: “No. I’m going to make my life in Honduras.”

For Pedro Arturo Torres, it was homesickness that broke his determination to reach the U.S.

“We didn’t know what lay ahead,” said Torres. “We want to return to our country, where you can get by — even if just with beans, but you can survive, there with our families, at peace.”

The Mexican government’s attitude has also played a role in wearing down the caravan. All the food, old clothes, water and medicine given to the migrants have come from private citizens, church groups or sympathetic local officials.

Trump has blamed Democrats for what he says are weak immigration laws, and he claimed that MS-13 gang members and unknown “Middle Easterners” were hiding among the migrants. He later acknowledged there was “no proof” of the claim that Middle Easterners were in the crowd.

Associated Press journalists traveling with the caravan have met throngs of Hondurans, as well as Guatemalans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans, but no one from the Mideast.

Another, smaller caravan earlier this year dwindled greatly as it passed through Mexico, with only about 200 making it to the California border. Those who do make it into the U.S. face a hard time being allowed to stay.