More migrants making way to Mexican border
AGUA CALIENTE, Guatemala — More than 1,700 Hondurans were walking and hitchhiking through Guatemala on Wednesday, heading toward the Mexico border as part of a new caravan of migrants hoping to reach the United States.
More than 1,700 migrants passed through the Agua Caliente border crossing under the watchful eyes of about 200 police and soldiers. Some migrants said that they crossed informally elsewhere.
Guatemala’s National Immigration Institute said there were 325 children or youths under 18 in the caravan. There were also nearly 100 people from El Salvador.
Miria Zelaya, who left the Honduran city of Colon and was traveling with 12 relatives, said she did not know what sort of work she hopes to find in the US, but was not dismayed by tougher immigration policies under US President Donald Trump.
“That does not discourage me,” Zelaya said. “The need is greater.”
Migrants leaving Central America’s Northern Triangle nations of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala routinely cite widespread poverty, lack of opportunity and violence as their motivation.
Many in the group registered for 90-day visas in Guatemala, saying they felt it would offer peace of mind on the 540-kilometer trek to Mexico’s southern border.
Hector Alvarado, a 25-year-old announcer, said he learned about the caravan on social media and said goodbye to relatives and hit the road.
“My loved ones have already cried over of my leaving,” Alvarado said. “Now I have to press on.”
The latest trek north came as Trump has been working to convince the US public that there is a crisis at the southern border to justify construction of his long-promised border wall. Trump’s demand for billions of dollars to that end has resulted in a standoff with Congress that has forced a partial government shutdown.
The fate that awaits the migrants at the Mexico-US border is uncertain. Previous caravans that were seized upon last year by Trump in the run-up to the 2018 midterm election have quietly dwindled, with many having gone home to Central America or put down roots in Mexico. Many others — nearly half, according to US Border Patrol arrest records — have sought to enter the US illegally.
About 6,000 Central Americans reached Tijuana in November amid conflict on both sides of the border over their presence in the Mexican city across from San Diego. As of earlier this week, fewer than 700 remained at a former outdoor concert venue in Tijuana that the Mexican government set up as a shelter to house them.
Mexico has issued humanitarian visas to about 2,900 migrants from last fall’s caravan, many of whom are now working legally there with visas.