Migrant caravan rests in Mexico City
About 600 miles from Texas border, group seeks medical aid, legal advice
CORDOBA, Mexico – Central Americans walking and hitching rides north in a caravan started reaching Mexico City over the weekend, marking another milestone on their winding odyssey toward the U.S. border as Americans voted in an election in which the immigrants became central characters.
The welcome in Mexico’s capital city has been a warm one. The local government turned a sports complex into a shelter to accommodate more than 5,000 weary immigrants, who for three weeks endured sore feet, sickness and downpours and survived on their wits and the generosity of Mexicans of modest means.
Mexico City places the immigrants about 600 miles from the closest U.S. border crossing, in Brownsville, Texas. Denis Omar Contreras, a Honduran who works with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an immigrant advocacy organization accompanying the caravan, said the group will probably head toward the California border, more than 1,700 miles away. That’s the route previous caravans have taken to avoid the cartel-controlled territory in eastern Mexico.
The stop in Mexico City could be a prolonged one as the caravan regroups, members tend to their growing list of medical problems and legal advocates talk them through their options.
“We’ll have a place to rest up there,” said Darby Flores, 28, a Honduran from the city of La Ceiba on the country’s Caribbean Coast. He hoped that during the group’s stay in Mexico City, “they can provide us with a permit to travel throughout the whole of Mexico.”
According to data released by the Mexican government Nov. 3, 2,793 caravan members accepted an offer from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to receive temporary work visas, health benefits and the chance to enroll their children in school. That leaves about 5,347 immigrants who refused, deciding they want to try their luck in the USA, where they could earn in an hour what they would make working in Central America for a week.
Rodrigo Abeja, a project coordinator with Pueblo Sin Fronteras, said consular officials from the Central American nations of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras will help replace identity documents and offer assistance. Lawyers will provide legal advice on each person’s options for applying for asylum in Mexico or the USA.