Hundreds of migrants leave Mexico City and heade for the border

MEXICO CITY – About 500 Central American migrants headed out of Mexico City on Friday to embark on the longest and most dangerous leg of their journey to the U.S. border, while thousands more were waiting one more day at a massive improvised shelter.

The group that got a head start bundled their few possessions and started off, taking a subway to the north part of the city and then hiking down an expressway with a police escort.

For many, it was the first time they had ever been in a metro system, and they had little knowledge of the city or the 1,740 mile route to Tijuana that lay ahead of them.

The advanced group hoped to reach the northcentral city of Queretaro, about 105 miles to the northwest, by nightfall.

Meanwhile, an additional 4,000 to 5,000 migrants milled around the massive shelter improvised at a Mexico City sports complex, impatient to leave.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” shouted Eddy Rivera, 37, from Honduras, who said he couldn’t take staying in the camp any longer. “We are all sick, from the humidity and the cold,” said Rivera, who left behind four children and a wife in Honduras. “We have to get going, we have to get to Tijuana.”