Increasing numbers
Caravan of migrants grows ahead of push into Mexico
Thousands of Central American migrants hoping to reach the U.S. were deciding Monday whether to rest in this southern Mexico town or resume their arduous walk through Mexico as President Donald Trump rained more threats on their governments.
After blaming the Democrats for “weak laws” on immigration a few days earlier, Trump said via Twitter Monday: “Every time you see a Caravan, or people illegally coming, or attempting to come, into our Country illegally, think of and blame the Democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic Immigration Laws!” He apparently sees the caravan as a winning issue for Republicans a little over two weeks ahead of midterm elections.
In another tweet, he blamed Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador for not stopping people from leaving their countries. “We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them,” he wrote.
A team of AP journalists travelling with the caravan for more than a week has spoken with Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans, but has not met any Middle Easterners of the sort Trump suggested were “mixed in” with the Central American migrants.
It was clear though that more migrants were continuing to join the caravan. Jose Anibal Rivera, 52, an unemployed security guard from San Pedro Sula crossed into Mexico by raft Sunday and walked up to Tapachula from Ciudad Hidalgo to join the caravan. “There are like 500 more people behind me,” he said.
He vowed to reach the U.S. border, still nearly 2,000 road miles away at its closest point. “Anything that happens, even if they kill me, is better than going back to Honduras,” he said.
Ana Luisa Espana, a clothes washer and ironer from Chiquimula, Guatemala, joined the caravan as she saw it pass through Guatemala.
‘The goal is to reach the (U.S.) border,“she said. ”We only want to work and if a job turns up in Mexico, I would do it. We would do anything, except bad things.“
Isis Ramirez, 32, a mother of three from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, awoke Monday morning on a square of sodden cardboard in Tapachula’s town square, her swollen feet stretched out in front of her, wrapped in bandages applied by paramedics. Blisters had formed on her feet from the cheap plastic sandals she wears. “There are more sick people. It’s better that we rest today,” she said.
Nearby, Julio Asturias, 27, a migrant from San Juan, El Salvador charged his cellphone from a dangling wire.
“I want to return to Arizona, and when I heard that the caravan was passing, I joined it,” he said. He said he was deported a couple of months ago after police pulled him over for a burned-out tail light.