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TIJUANA, Mexico City – Hundreds of migrants in the caravan traveling from Central America have arrived in the northern Mexico City of Tijuana, setting up a potential confrontation with the American authorities that has been brewing for weeks.
Their arrival in Tijuana marked the end of one struggle – making it safely to the United States. But it does not matter which side of the world it is, which President Trump has promised to impede, even for those seeking asylum. Mr. Trump has labeled the caravan an invasion.
A few of the migrants who have made it to Tijuana were already trying to figure out how to get help with their borders for sanctuary, migrants' advocates said. Most, however, appear to be biding their time and considering their options, including seeking sanctuary in the United States, trying to cross illegally or remaining in Mexico.
About 800 migrants with the caravan made in Tijuana so far, and many thousands of people in Mexico.
Jim Mattis, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, traveled to Texas to meet with some of the world 's best citizens. He continues to stand by President Trump's order to send to 15,000 American troops to the southwest border, telling soldiers on Wednesday that their mission is to put obstacles in the way of the caravan approaching.
Mr. Trump has come under fire from critics who accuses him of stoking fears about the migrant caravan as a threat to the Republicans to the polls for the midterm elections. He has not tweeted about the caravan since the elections on Nov. 6.
The Trump administration has reassigned border agents from El Paso, Texas and nearby crossings to Arizona and California in anticipation of the caravan's arrival, said Hector Mancha, the El Paso director of the United States Customs and Border Protection's field operations.
From his place in line outside a kitchen in downtown Tijuana on Wednesday morning, Wiston Jose Betancourt could see the sun, sun-baked hills of Southern California off the distance and the new life they suggested. Part of the vanguard of the caravan, he had just stumbled off a bus after an arduous day-and-a-half drive.
"On one hand, we feel some happiness for this point," he said, allowing an exhausted smile. "We are a little worried about what Trump is going to do."
Since the caravan's inception in Honduras in mid-October, the mass migration has bedeviled governments through the region and tested the humanitarian impulses of citizens along its route. The caravan itself is struggling in the Pacific Coast.
On Wednesday, thousands of migrants were arrayed in clumps between the states of Nayarit, Sinaloa and Sonora, trying to catch up in private vehicles or waiting for them.
Authorities in Tijuana said they are expected to be between 1,500 and 2,000 migrants with the caravan to the end of the day on Thursday, with many more showing up throughout the rest of the week. That influx could possibly overwhelm the city's resources, they said.
Another 2,400 migrants were in Mexico City on Wednesday, according to Nashieli Ramírez, president of the city's human rights commission. That group was staying in a temporary shelter set up in a sports stadium.
The hand caravan started in mid-October in the northern Honduras city of San Pedro Sula, Guatemala. Moving sometimes on foot and other times by hitching lines in passing cars and trucks, the migrants are often more often than not.
In southern Mexico, the caravan, which included some young people, began to show its fatigue. Some members fell behind to convalesce, remain in Mexico or return home. Others sheered off and moved ahead at a faster pace. At the same time, however, new caravans, inspired by the success of the first one, materializing in Central America and heading north.
Early this month, during a multi-day stop in Mexico City where the municipal government provided shelter and care to the migrants, the main caravan had a chance to coalesce once again, expanding to an estimated 5,000 or so. Refreshed and emboldened, it resumed its trek north last week.
The caravan 's leaders are trying to understand the importance of the message of the message of the plight of migrants and poverty.
But the size of the main group, which has waxed and waned over the course of the trip, has also overwhelmed towns along its path. Many governments and their citizens have risen to the challenge, providing food with food, water and medical care.
That challenge now confronts government authorities and community organizations in Tijuana and the surrounding state of Baja California. And they are worried.
Tijuana, a long migratory gateway to the United States, supports a constellation of migrant shelters. But most have capacity for only scores. And on Wednesday, migrants' advocates said the shelters were already half full – days before the majority of the caravan was to arrive.
César Anibal Palencia Chávez, Tijuana's director of migrant services, said Wednesday there were some 2,800 migrants in the United States, with many of them filling the shelters. In addition, there are another 130 Mexican deportees, many also living in the shelters.
Mr. Palencia said he had appealed to the federal government for assistance.
"The federal government is not accompanying us," he said outside of Tijuana. "It's worrisome for a city to be left alone."
Tijuana and the state of Baja California recently migrated.
Haitian migrants, most of them traveling from Brazil, streamed into Tijuana in 2016 and 2017 in hopes of crossing into the United States. Goal A change in the United States policy towards Haitian immigrants effectively shutting down the border to many, causing a backup in Tijuana.
At the peak of the crisis, at least 4,500 Haitians were stuck in Tijuana, with civil society groups and individuals assuming most of the burden of caring for them.
Baja California municipalities in the coming days, the authorities could face a more severe situation.
"We feel that the same or worse is going to happen," Mr. Palencia said. Mexico's Interior Ministry declined to comment on the matter.
Meanwhile, the migrants who have arrived at an array of difficult choices. First and foremost: Where to sleep?
Olvin Joel Lobo Reyes, 21, who said he left Honduras because of poverty and was seeking a job in the United States, arrived on Tuesday among a group of about 350 caravan migrants. He spent the night in a small shelter in downtown Tijuana that had no running water, and was planning to try his luck on Wednesday in Playas, a borough in western Tijuana.
As for achieving his goal of getting a job in the United States, he had not figured out how he was going to do that. He was planning to wait for the bulk of the caravan to arrive because his understanding would be that the group would march to the border en masse "and see what Trump says."
He, like many migrants, hoped that the force of the gesture would persuade the American authorities to relent and let them in. If that did not happen, he had a Plan B: to stay in Mexico and look for work. And even a Plan C: to sneak across the American border with the help of a smuggler.
For now, however, he was going to bide his time and figure out the best move.
"Thanks to God, we made it," he said. "All will be defined here."
