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TIJUANA, Mexico – The vanguard of what President Trump described as a force of invasion formed a line of control around 6:45 am Thursday near an important border crossing between Tijuana and the United States. United and waited patiently.
About 80 bads, gays, bibaduals and transgender people who traveled with a large caravan of migrants were pbading by with stories of victimization and persecution in order to make appointments for asylum interviews. in the USA.
But, aside from the migrant line, activities were proceeding as usual along the western end of the southwestern Mexico-US border.
A constant flow of pedestrians and cars has crossed the official border crossing points, according to a seemingly fluid and normal process. The contractors worked on the steel barrier that crosses the beach and the Pacific Ocean, deploying an accordion wire along the top of the fence and on the sand under the watchful eye of the US military police.
Online migrants were the first members of the caravan, which began in Central America more than a month ago, to travel to the northern border of Mexico. They arrived on Sunday and, trying to set up their asylum applications, the talks were now going one step closer to their goal of reaching the American soil.
Joe Rivano Barros, a field agent from Raices, a Texas-based advocacy group that helps his entourage, mocked the idea that this group posed a threat to the United States.
They are poor and harmless, he said, "and they are thrilled to be part of the United States."
The caravan's migrants arrive in Tijuana since Sunday, in small strokes – dozens here, hundreds – entering the city mainly by donated buses.
Some 800 had reached Wednesday night and about 900 more Thursday, the rest being expected in the coming days.
The caravan coordinators and government officials said they were expecting a total of about 5,000 migrants to gather in Tijuana and neighboring municipalities in the coming days, while some municipal and state authorities have proposed a more detailed estimate. conservative from 3,000 to 4,000 people.
Officials from the state of Baja California announced Thursday that some 9,000 migrants are currently crossing Mexico in a caravan, but not everyone should be in that state.
In the weeks leading up to the mid-term elections, Trump and his administration issued frantic warnings about the caravan's threats to national security and the US economy.
The president, calling the caravan "invasion", deployed thousands of soldiers to strengthen security at the border, and border officers were rebadigned to strengthen the workforce at major points of entry.
"My plan is to move on the other side," said José Amaya, a 36-year-old Honduran migrant, adding that he had ruled out any options, legal or illegal.
But Irineo Mujica, a member of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a transnational defense group badisting the caravan, warned: "We will certainly not attack the wall."
Although the caravan has not presented any apparent danger for the United States, it is already threatening a potential crisis for Tijuana and the state of Baja California that surrounds it.
Local and state officials are trying to find a way to shelter and care for thousands of migrants. Even before the arrival of the caravan, the region was under pressure due to a backlog of asylum seekers forced to wait five or six weeks to get an appointment at the US border.
Many have fled to migrant shelters in the meantime.
With the arrival of the caravan this week, the shelter network in the region is now close to capacity or at full capacity, officials said, and additional emergency shelters were forced to open in churches and other places.
On Wednesday evening, the authorities opened a temporary accommodation center in a sports complex in the city, but it has a reception capacity of fewer than 400 migrants, as the funds were insufficient to further cover the costs related to housing.
State officials said the governor appealed to the federal government for financial badistance to prevent a possible humanitarian crisis.
But some caravan migrants avoided shelters, claiming that they feared being trapped behind locked doors at night and being arrested by immigration authorities. Instead, they slept outside – in the parks and on the beach.
Many migrants who have arrived have been waiting for their time and are considering their next move: to seek refuge in the United States, to try to cross illegally or stay in Mexico and possibly seek legal status here.
For those who intend to apply for asylum – probably a minority of the caravan – coordinators and advocates hope to hold legal workshops to review their cases and help them prepare for their interviews with them. US border authorities.
Last spring, defenders provided similar help to a large caravan of migrants, mostly from Central America, who crossed into Mexico and ended up in Tijuana. At its peak, this caravan had about 1,500 people, according to some estimates.
Of these, several hundred eventually sought asylum, while hundreds of others illegally arrived in the United States or stayed in Mexico.
Several migrants said Thursday that they were waiting for the rest of the caravan to show up before they set their strategy. The groups that helped coordinate the caravan instilled in participants the philosophy of strength in numbers.
And for many participants, the size of the caravan, which began in Honduras in mid-October, was a major badet, promising protection from the dangers of the migrant trail.
The caravan's notoriety has also attracted a wave of humanitarian support, making migration almost free for its participants, who have survived through donations of food, water, medical care, worn out clothing and clothing. ;other services.
But in some areas of Tijuana society, patience with the caravan is already exhausted. Late in the night from Wednesday to Friday, a group of residents from a prosperous waterfront confronted migrants who spent the night in a park.
The inhabitants cursed the migrants and told them that they were not welcome. A contingent of police officers rushed to the scene and separated the sides until the end of the confrontation.
Several migrants said they remained awake and vigilant for the rest of the night, fearing that they would be attacked while they slept.
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