A cross to bear
Desperate migrants huddle on bridge between hope & hell
Hundreds of migrants fleeing poverty and gang violence hunkered down on a bridge straddling the border between Guatemala and Mexico Saturday, waiting in limbo to see what their future will hold.
Tensions along the border eased a day after some members of the stalled U.S.-bound caravan stormed a metal gate and tried to force their way past a crossing guarded by hundreds of Mexican federal police.
Women and children made their way toward the front of the group, while men were at the back as Mexican police and immigration agents allowed small groups of 10, 20 or 30 people through the gates at a time if they wanted to apply for refugee status.
Mexican immigration authorities said they had received 640 applications from Hondurans seeking refugee status in Mexico. Among them were 164 women, some of them pregnant, and 104 children, some as young as 3 months.
Others, tired of waiting, leaped from the bridge into the Suchiate River below and swam their way to the muddied banks on the Mexican side of the border.
Some used ropes to lower themselves from the bridge into the waters below or floated across on rafts. Locals with makeshift boats charged a dollar or two to help the desperate make their way north.
Hundreds of others awoke after spending the night on the bridge, the air stale with garbage and no bathrooms in sight.
“From here, we're going on. From here, there's no turning back," said Jose Yanez, a 25-year-old farmer, adding that he makes 150 lempiras a day in Honduras, or about $6, and has no benefits.
On Friday, some in the group busted through a Guatemalan border fence, rushed onto the bridge and clashed with Mexican authorities who used pepper spray to keep the crowds at bay.
Mexican officials called for calm as President Trump continued to elevated the procession into a political issue.
Trump has railed against the caravan, which at one point consisted of more than 3,000 Central American migrants, in recent days. He threatened to cut aid to Honduras and other nations and vowed to send troops to the southern border with Mexico to prevent the migrants from entering the U.S.
He also used the standoff to attack Democrats, suggesting Saturday they were somehow to blame for the mass migration. He called the situation “sad from both sides” and claimed Democrats are “openly inviting” immigrants and “want caravans.”
He then appeared to take credit for the Mexican government's attempts at slowing the progress of the migrants.
“Now Mexico respects the leadership of the United States,” he said.
The President added that he had “already figured out” how to solve the problem of immigration and “make a lot of people happy.” But he did not explain how.
“I think I'll keep it a little bit low-key until the election,” he said.