Migrants march to border crossing
Group in Tijuana demands improved conditions, entry into United States
TIJUANA, Mexico — A small group of Central American migrants marched to a border crossing in Tijuana on Thursday to demand better conditions and push to enter the United States.
Mexican police watched closely as authorities from the National Human Rights Commission and the Grupo Beta migrant support agency told the migrants their needs would be addressed.
They urged them to apply for humanitarian visas in Mexico and seek work in Tijuana, where they said thousands of jobs were available.
But Oscar Rodriguez, 22, of Colon, Honduras, said he was still set on convincing “the United States to open its doors to us.”
Several thousand Central American migrants arrived in Tijuana last week more than a month after leaving Honduras in a caravan.
The U.S. government only processes about 100 asylum applications per day at Tijuana’s main crossing to San Diego and there were already several thousand migrants on a waiting list.
Some outspoken Tijuana residents have given the migrants a cold reception leaving them stuck between the city, whose mayor said they aren’t wanted, and a U.S. president who is trying to keep them out.
Meanwhile, Mexican immigration agents on Wednesday detained almost all of the Central American migrants on a fourth caravan that recently entered Mexico seeking to reach the United States.
Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said 213 migrants were detained and taken to a processing center. Those found to lack proper documents may face repatriation to their home countries.
The migrants detained on a highway between the Guatemalan border and the southern Mexican city of Tapachula included 186 people from El Salvador, 16 from Guatemala, 10 Hondurans and one Nicaraguan.
The group set out from El Salvador on Nov. 18 and apparently crossed the river dividing Guatemala and Mexico on Tuesday. That is the sameroute the three larger caravans