Caravan migrants seek asylum
Group greeted by news that U.S. crossing full
TIJUANA, Mexico — A group of Central Americans who journeyed in a caravan to the U.S. border resolved to turn themselves in and ask for asylum Sunday in a challenge to the Trump administration only to have U.S. immigration officials announce that the San Diego crossing was already at capacity.
Nearly 200 migrants, many traveling with children, had decided to apply for protection at the nation’s busiest border crossing after many fled violence in their home countries, organizers said. The caravan got attention after President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet called it a threat to the United States.
Shortly before the migrants were expected to arrive, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing would not be able to handle more asylum seekers. It can hold about 300 people at a time, and officials had been warning that it might fill up.
“At this time, we have reached capacity at the San Ysidro port of entry for CBP officers to be able to bring additional persons traveling without appropriate entry documentation into the port of entry for processing,” Commissioner Kevin Mcaleenan said in a statement. “Those individuals may need to wait in Mexico as CBP officers work to process those already within our facilities.”
Despite the announcement, about 50 people walked across a bridge and approached the port facility but were not accommodated by U.S. officials.
They were being permitted to wait in passageways until room became available, according to Irineo Mujica, one of the organizers of Pueblos Sin Fronteras, an organization aiding the asylum speakers.
Nicole Ramos, an attorney working on behalf of caravan members, expressed disbelief that U.S. authorities cannot process more asylum seekers until its backlog eases.
“They have been well aware that a caravan is going to arrive at the border,” she said at a news conference. “The failure to prepare and failure to get sufficient agents and resources is not the fault of the most vulnerable among us. We can build a base in Iraq in under a week. We can’t process 200 refugees. I don’t believe it.”
The Trump administration has been tracking the caravan since it started in Mexico on March 25 near the Guatemala border.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called the caravan “a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system.”
Administration officials have criticized what they call America’s “catch and release” policies that allow people requesting asylum to be released from custody into the U.S. while their claims make their way through the courts, a process that can last a year.