Migrants weigh offers to stay in Mexico

Over 2,000 have taken temporary visas so far

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 to reach the U.S. border.

Mexico City officials said as many as 1,000 more might arrive at the Jesus Martinez stadium as lagging members of the caravan trail in.

Members of the caravan declined to make an immediate decision Tuesday night on whether to stay in Mexico, 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-year-old daughter Emily, after the girl began to draw unwanted attention from a drug trafficker. Rodriguez left her 7-year-old son with her husband in Honduras. “Even though it hurts to leave my son … I had to protect her,” Rodriguez said .

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 to cover them while they wait for the 45-day application process for a more permanent status.

Hundreds of city employees and even more volunteers helped sort donations and direct migrants to- ward food, water, diapers and other basics. Migrants searched through piles of donated clothes, grabbed boxes of milk for children and lined up to make quick calls home at a stand set up by the Red Cross.

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 crowd.

Maria Yesenia Perez, 41, said there was no space in the stadium when she and her 8-year-old daughter arrived Tuesday night, so the two from Honduras slept on the grass outside. Migrants pitched tents in the parking lot and constructed makeshift shelters from plywood covered with blankets and tarps.

Several smaller groups were trailing hundreds of miles to the south; officials estimated about 7,000 in all were in the country in the caravans.