Migrant caravan continues north, defying Mexico, U.S.

TAPACHULA, Mexico — In open defiance of the Mexican and U.S. governments, thousands of Central American migrants, part of a caravan that has been heading toward the United States for more than a week, resumed their journey Sunday in southern Mexico.

The Mexican government, which has been under pressure by President Donald Trump to stop the caravan, had ordered the migrants to submit to processing by immigration authorities at a legal border crossing. But thousands chose instead to move on — part of a group of people who had been stopped at the Mexican border this week after having traveled for several days, most from their homes in Honduras.

Most of the migrants on the move Sunday — by one local government estimate more than 7,000 people, the majority of the caravan — had crossed the border illegally in recent days from Guatemala to Mexico. They gathered in the central square in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Hidalgo on Saturday and voted by a show of hands to continue their journey north.

“We want to get to the United States,” said Maria Irias Rodriguez, 17, a migrant from Tegulcigalpa, Honduras. “If they stop us now, we’ll just come back a second time.” She said she had waited at the border until mid-Saturday but became desperate at how long it was taking to be processed.

On Sunday afternoon, Trump took to Twitter again to address the caravan, saying that those migrants seeking asylum must first apply in Mexico. “If they fail to do that, the U.S. will turn them away,” he said. But Mexican officials have said migrants seeking asylum are under no legal obligation to apply in Mexico.

Under a proposed bilateral agreement that

the Trump administration has discussed with Mexican officials, U.S. border officials would be able to legally turn back asylum-seekers who first pass through Mexico, forcing them to seek protection south of the border.

In southern Mexico on Sunday, officials made barely any effort to halt the migrants. Federal police officers were at times present on the road, monitoring the procession, but the authorities allowed the procession to carry on unimpeded.