Local official help migrants on their way
Mexico
Local Mexican officials were once again yesterday helping thousands of Central American migrants find rides on the next leg of their journey toward the US border.
At a toll plaza to the west of the central Mexico city of Queretaro, where the group spent Sunday night, police helped find trucks to take migrants and prevented them from trying to stop drivers themselves.
The government of Queretaro said via Twitter that 6531 migrants had moved through the state between Saturday and Sunday. It said that 5771 of those were departing yesterday after staying in three shelters it had prepared, the largest of which was a soccer stadium in the state capital.
Those numbers appeared even higher than counts made by officials when the group was in Mexico City for several days, raising the possibility that other migrants have caught up to the main caravan.
The migrants began walking before dawn yesterday for Irapuato about 100km to the west after crossing into Guanajuato state, where local authorities also assisted them.
A day earlier a similar scene played out as the caravan exited Mexico City. Dedicated metro trains moved migrants across the capital before dawn and at a toll plaza north of the city they formed orderly lines to wait for their turn to climb aboard passing 18-wheelers that were willing to help them cover the 200km to Queretaro.
Emilson Manuel Figueroa managed a seat on the back of a flatbed truck packed with other migrants.
‘‘I think that in my country I will get old and will never have something to live on,’’ said the 23-year-old cab driver from Honduras.
The migrants appear to be on a path to Tijuana across the border from San Diego, which is still some 2575km away.
The caravan became a campaign issue in US midterm elections and US President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of over 5000 military troops to the border to fend off the migrants. Trump has also insinuated without proof that there are criminals or even terrorists in the group.
Many migrants say they are fleeing rampant poverty, gang violence and political instability primarily in the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and they have now been on the road for weeks.
Mexico has offered refuge, asylum or work visas to the migrants, and its government said 2697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families to cover them while they wait for the 45-day application process for a more permanent status. –AP