Migrants arrive by hundreds at US border
TIJUANA, Mexico — Migrants in a caravan of Central Americans arrived in Tijuana by the hundreds Wednesday, getting their first glimpse of the robust U.S. military presence that awaits them after President Donald Trump ordered thousands of troops to the border.
Several hundred people from the caravan got off buses and made their way to a shelter on the Mexican side near the border to line up for food. Doctors checked those fighting colds and other ailments while several dozen migrants, mostly single men, spent the night at a Tijuana beach that is cut by a towering border wall of metal bars.
Several Border Patrol agents in San Diego watched them through the barrier separating the U.S. and Mexico. American troops carrying machine guns stood near the agents next to recently installed concertina wire atop a stretch of the barrier.
The first wave of migrants in the caravan, which became a central theme of the recent U.S. election, began arriving in Tijuana in recent days. The bulk of the main caravan appeared to be about 1,100 miles from the border, and has been moving hundreds of miles a day by hitching rides on trucks and buses.
Many of the new arrivals were waiting in Tijuana to make their next step to enter in the U.S., either by illegally crossing the border or by seeking asylum at a port of entry.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, meanwhile, visited U.S. troops posted at the border in Donna, Texas, and said the deployment provides good training for war, despite criticism that the effort is a waste of taxpayer money and a political stunt. Most of the troops are in Texas, more than 1,500 miles from where the caravan is arriving.
The first arrivals generally U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen, third from right, visit Base Camp Donna on Wednesday in Donna, Texas, about 1,500 miles from Tijuana, Mexico, where a group of caravan migrants arrived the same day. received a warm welcome from Tijuana. The city’s secretary of economic development has said there are about 3,000 jobs for migrants who want to stay in the city.
In 2016, Tijuana shelters housed Haitians who came by the thousands after making their way from Brazil with plans to get to the U.S. Since then, several thousand Haitians have remained in Tijuana, finding work. Some have married local residents and enrolled in local universities.
Douglas Matute, 38, of Honduras, said he arrived Wednesday in a convoy of
Two Central American migrants climb the border structure topped with concertina wire Wednesday in Tijuana, Mexico nine buses. Matute, who joined the caravan with his brother to flee violence and poverty, said he was holding out hope that the U.S. Congress would pave the way for him to legally enter the country. Until a clearer picture emerged, he said, he would stay in Tijuana and wouldn’t attempt to cross the border illegally.
A few people pitched tents at the Tijuana beach plaza while most, like Henry Salinas, 30, of Honduras, planned to sleep there in the open.
He said that he intended to wait for thousands more in the caravan to arrive and that
he hoped to jump the fence in a large group at the same time, overwhelming Border Patrol agents.
On Tuesday, a couple of dozen migrants scaled the steel border fence to celebrate their arrival, chanting “Yes, we could!” One man dropped over to the U.S. side briefly as border agents watched from a distance. He ran quickly back to the fence.
About 1,300 migrants in a second caravan were resting at a stadium in Mexico City, where the first group stayed several days last week. By early Wednesday, an additional 1,100 migrants from a third and final caravan had arrived at the stadium.
Mexico has offered refuge, asylum and work visas to the migrants, and its government said Monday that 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families to cover them during the 45-day application process for more permanent status. Some 533 migrants had requested a voluntary return to their countries, the government reported.