"We are not killers": caravan migrants respond to Trump

Central American migrants, members of the caravan hoping to reach the US border, were traveling by truck to Donaji, in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, on Friday, November 2, 2018. Migrants had already traveled 65 miles from Juchitan, Oaxaca, Thursday, after they failed to get the bus ride they hoped for. But hitch rides allowed them to arrive early in Donaji, and some headed for a city further north, Sayula. (Photo by MARCO UGARTE / AP)

DONAJI, Mexico – While President Donald Trump intensified his anti-migrants rhetoric ahead of Tuesday's midterm elections, exhausted Central Americans crossing Mexico in the hope of reaching the United States declared that they were mostly perplexed and repelled by his exaggerated threats.

The US president spent the last days of the campaign tackling the problem as he tried to boost Republican voters. Its favorite target is the migrant caravan of nearly 4,000 people more than 800 miles from the nearest US border. Three smaller ones follow behind.

Trump's recent statements indicate that he plans to sign an order that could lead to the detention of migrants crossing the southern border and forbidding anyone illegally taken the right to apply for asylum. Both proposals are legally dubious. Trump also said that he had told the US Army mobilized at the Southwest border that if US troops were confronted with migrants who were throwing stones, they should react as if they were "guns" ".

"It 's pure ignorance for him to think so," said Marta Cuellos, a 40 – year – old native of Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. "A rock is not the same as a rifle."

While some migrants have clashed with the Mexican police on a bridge at the Guatemalan border, most of those traveling with caravans are peaceful and claim to flee violence and poverty at home. Those traveling Friday in the state of Oaxaca, in the south of the country, said that they were not looking for trouble.

Cuellos said that she owned a cantina at her home in Honduras but that she had left her because she could no longer pay rent and that she was being harassed by the police . She persuaded her 35-year-old sister to join her for the trip and said the only thing they wanted was a job and a better life in the United States. This is his second attempt. She first arrived in the United States seven years ago, but was deported last year.

Selvin Maldonado, a 25-year-old resident of Copan, Honduras, said he left his wife and baby daughter at home looking for a better life to support his children. He took with him his 5 year old son, Dennys.

"What Trump said is stupid," Maldonado said as he headed for the city of Donaji. "I do not want to attack the police, because what concerns me, it's my son."

Migrants were also frustrated by the characterization of the caravan idling by the US president and the next three smaller ones as "an invasion". Trump proposed to detain migrants in gigantic tent cities at the border.

"We are not killers," said Stephany Lopez, a 21-year-old Salvadoran with the first caravan. "We just want to work for a few years and after that, he can deport us if he wants to."

Lopez noted that the president's mother, born in Scotland, was an immigrant.

"He should think of us as equals. Immigrants built this country, "she said.

In June, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said that domestic violence and gangs would no longer be widely accepted as reasons for migrants to be granted asylum. Trump said this week that members of the caravan would not benefit from asylum – although US law gives them the right to apply – and warned them to turn around.

The fierce opposition and harsh rhetoric of the Trump administration has at least some of them in the balance of alternatives.

Tifany Morandis, 19, was traveling with her husband, Javier Sanchez, 28, and their two sons, Angel, 7, and César, 9 months old.

With her nose and face burnt by the sun after many days on the road, she says she is very tired and plans to stop in Tijuana, the Mexican border town in front of San Diego.

"Donald Trump has made things very complicated at the border and it's better to stay in Tijuana than to fight with him," Morandis said.

But many are optimistic.

"Even stones can soften," said Cuellos. /at M

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