In Mexico, months after waiting, caravan migrants decide to return home

TIJUANA, Mexico – Nelmy Ponce and her three children are tired of sleeping on the floor, it's raining or it's selling. They are fed up with insults – pbaders-by who shout "pigs!" Just because they are strangers.

Upon arrival, the migrant caravan seemed to be a way to escape the precariousness of life among Honduran gangsters. Now, she says it sounds like a purgatory, with no possibility of seeking asylum in the United States in the near future.

"God tells me to go home," said Ponce.

And so, Ponce, a 46-year-old tacos saleswoman, and her three children Wednesday sat on plastic chairs in a small tent announcing one of the most desperate options now considering "Assisted Voluntary Return".

For migrants who spent two months walking and hitchhiking in Central America and Mexico, there is a dramatic reversal, a sign of the poverty in which they find themselves. Current conditions and the surprise of some families when they become familiar with the long process of American asylum.

[For migrants in Tijuana, seeking asylum in U.S. starts with a worn notebook]

"They make the decision for a variety of reasons," said Ivonne Aguirre, program coordinator at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which helps migrants return home. "Some have sick parents, some are missing their families, others are surprised by the living conditions here, which are not what they had imagined."

There are still more than 6,000 caravan migrants at the Tijuana Sports Complex, and most of them intend to wait weeks or months to apply for a fee. asylum in the United States. But the number of people making other decisions – staying in Mexico or returning to Central America – is slowly increasing.

Since the IOM program was launched here about a week ago, 50 Central American migrants have signed up to return to their home country. In the coming days, the first group will be transported by commercial airlines to Tapachula, in southern Mexico, then in his home country, probably by bus.

Migrants also have the opportunity to register through the Mexican Migration Agency, which organizes the return of buses to Central America, as well as flights aboard aircraft of the Federal Police. Cesar Palencia, head of the migrant affairs office in Tijuana, said 200 people had left the caravan through this channel.

Since Oct. 19, the first crossing of the caravan in southern Mexico, 2,010 migrants have chosen "voluntary return" in their country, according to a spokesman for the National Institute of Migration of Mexico. The harsh conditions of running at least one marathon day a day in extreme heat have discouraged many people from continuing.

[‘The situation keeps getting worse’: Unrest at U.S.-Mexico border creates new tension over migrant caravan]

As the caravan pbaded through Mexico, the government explored various ways to disperse the group. President Enrique Peña Nieto proposed a program called "Estas en tu casa" – or "you are at home" – offering migrants a haven in the southern states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, as well as work permits and educational opportunities for children. Some 600 people from the caravan would have accepted the offer, but most have chosen to keep walking

The Mexican government has also offered temporary work permits to migrants who wish to stay in Mexico. Nearly 700 Americans from Baja California and Mexico City have begun the process, according to a statement issued Wednesday by Mexico's Interior Ministry.

The transition team of the new Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, said she could offer some 100,000 work permits to Central Americans living in Mexico, including while processing their asylum applications. New officials have reported strong demand for labor in factories in northern Mexico, as well as new infrastructure projects such as the "Maya Train" in southern Mexico.

"We think that with this caravan, we might be able to badimilate some people," said Olga Sanchez Cordero, the new interior minister of Mexico, in an interview last week. "Others may return to their countries. They will be sick of being here.

Ponce has reached this point after almost two months on the road and more than a week in Tijuana.

In the tent of IOM, Ponce told Aguirre that she had received threats of violence while she was holding a small tacos stand in her hometown of Yoro, Honduras. She felt that her family was in danger and dreamed of seeking asylum in the United States. In Tijuana, she learned that it would not be so easy.

"They told me we had to wait about three months before starting the asylum procedure in the United States," Ponce said after his interview with IOM. "We do not want to wait here."

Thousands of members of the migrant caravan camp at a sports complex in Tijuana. (Carolyn Van Houten / The Washington Post)

"Tijuana is not a safe place. We heard about crime, kidnappings, "she said.

Ponce asked his children, aged 12 to 16, what they wanted to do. The vote was unanimous: they all wanted to return to Honduras, as long as they could find a safer place than their hometown.

Ponce told Aguirre that she would be ready to move to a part of Honduras where her brother lives and where she thought it would be safer. Aguirre explained that it would take time to arrange his trip by the Honduran Consulate and that his name would be put on a waiting list for the flight.

Now, Hernandez had to wonder if the arduous journey with the caravan was worth it, as she was preparing to return to her native country. She was provocative.

"It was not easy, but it brought us closer," she said, looking at her children. "And that made me understand the value of my own house and my own bed."

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Partlow reported in Mexico.