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The first members of a Central American caravan to reach the US border slept in overcrowded shelters and tents, to see armed US border police appear, many saying they would wait until other migrants join them before taking their measurements.
Hundreds of migrants have arrived by bus in Tijuana since Tuesday, occupying the limited space available in the city's shelters and overflowing into a seafront square sandwiched between an old arena and a border fence surmounted by concertina son recently installed.
Some men climbed the fence to take a look at the other side Wednesday. Women and young children sleeping in tents in the square could see border police officers carrying machine guns in camouflage with the San Diego skyline in the distance.
The Juventud Refuge 2000 brought together 15 women and their children, bringing the number of people to almost 200, double the usual capacity. Others have been repressed. Dozens of migrants, mainly single men, spent the night on a beach cut by the fence wall made of metal bars.
The first arrivals were generally warmly welcomed, despite Tijuana's shelter system to accommodate migrants at full capacity. Migrants lined up to find food while doctors controlled those fighting colds and other ailments.
The first major groups of Central American groups began arriving in the Mexican city of Tijuana, which borders San Diego on the American side. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press)
Most of the main caravan appeared to be about 1,800 kilometers from the border, but recently traveled hundreds of kilometers a day hitchhiking trucks and buses.
Mexico offered migrants asylum, asylum and work visas, and its government said on Monday that 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families during the permanent status application process. 45 days. Some 533 migrants have requested voluntary return to their country, said the government.
In the meantime, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis visited US troops at the Texas border and said the deployment provided a good training for the war, despite criticism that it would a waste of taxpayer money and a political cascade. Most of the troops are in Texas, more than 2,400 kilometers from the caravan.
Enter "through the door" & # 39;
On Wednesday, there was no evidence of caravan members at the main Tijuana border post to San Diego, where asylum seekers gather every morning. The San Ysidro entry point, the busiest border crossing point on the US-Mexico border, handles only about 100 asylum applications per day, resulting in a waiting period of five weeks even before migrants arrive in the country. caravan do not begin to arrive.
Central Americans in the caravan are the latest migrants to arrive in Tijuana in the hope of moving to the United States. In 2016, Tijuana shelters welcomed thousands of Haitians who had left Brazil for the United States. Since then, several thousand Haitians have remained in Tijuana in search of work. Some married local residents and enrolled at local universities.
Central American migrants are queuing for a meal in an accommodation center in Tijuana. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press)
Ilse Marilu, 24, arrived in Tijuana Tuesday night with her three-year-old daughter. She had joined the caravan with a large contingent from San Pedro Sula, Honduras. On Tuesday, she walked several kilometers in an unsuccessful search for space in a migrant shelter before reaching the beach. A Mexican couple set up a tent in which their daughter and three other children slept to cool off at night.
She had planned to stay in Tijuana until the arrival of the caravan officials and offered to help her find asylum in the United States.
"We will enter through the front door," said Marilu, insisting that she would never try to enter the country illegally.
Two Central American migrants walk along the border structure separating Mexico and the United States from Tijuana. (Gregory Bull / Associated Press)
Some people planted tents on the Tijuana beach, while most, like Henry Salinas, 30, of Honduras, planned to sleep outdoors.
He said that he was planning to wait for the arrival of thousands of other people in the caravan and that he hoped to cross the barrier with a large group at the same time, crushing the border patrol agents.
"It's going to be all against one, one against all, all of Central America against one, and one against Central America," he said.
"All against Trump, and Trump against all."
Migrants across Mexico
On Wednesday, buses and trucks transported migrants to the state of Sinaloa, along the Gulf of California, and further north in the border state of Sonora.
Reverend Miguel Angel Soto, director of Casa de Migrante in Culiacan, capital of Sinaloa, said that about 2,000 migrants had arrived in this region. He said that the state government, the Roman Catholic Church and officials of the town of Escuinapa, in Sinaloa, were helping the migrants.
The priest said that the church was able to get "good people" buses for the transfer of migrants to the north. He said 24 buses had left Escuinapa after an eight-hour drive to Navojoa in the state of Sonora.
Migrants climbed the truck beds to cross Mexico to the US border. (Rodrigo Abd / Associated Press)
Small groups have also been reported in the northern towns of Saltillo and Monterrey, near Texas.
About 1,300 migrants in a second caravan were resting in a stadium in Mexico City, where the first group stayed several days last week. In early Wednesday, 1,100 other migrants from a third and final caravan also arrived at the stadium.
Like most members of the third caravan, the migrant Javier Pineda is from El Salvador and hopes to reach the United States. Pineda said: "If they can do it, there is no reason for us not to do it."
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