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TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) – Migrants from a Central American caravan arrived in Tijuana Wednesday in the hundreds, after receiving a first glimpse of the solid US military presence that awaits them after President Donald Trump has sent thousands soldiers on the border.
Several hundred people from the caravan got off the buses and headed for a shelter on the Mexican side, near the border, to queue for food. Doctors checked cases of colds and other ailments, while dozens of migrants, mainly single men, spent the night on a beach in Tijuana, cut off by an imposing wall of metal bars. Several border police officers in San Diego have observed them across the barrier separating the United States and Mexico.
The first wave of migrants in the caravan, which has become a central theme of the recent US election, has begun arriving in Tijuana in recent days and their numbers have increased daily. Most of the main caravan appeared to be about 1,800 km from the border, but recently traveled hundreds of miles a day hitchhiking trucks and buses.
Many new arrivals were waiting in Tijuana for the arrival of the caravan leaders and provided them with information on their immigration options in the United States, including asylum applications. Some said that they could cross illegally.
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 1500 km from where the caravan arrives.
The first arrivals have generally received a warm welcome from Tijuana, despite the fact that his accommodation system for accommodating migrants is saturated. The city's economic development secretary said there were about 3,000 jobs for migrants who want to stay in the city. Some people went down to the place where the men were camping on a beach and gave them some tacos to eat on Wednesday.
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.
"Mexico has been excellent. we have no complaints about Mexico. The United States remains to be seen, "said Josue Vargas, a Honduran migrant who finally landed in Tijuana Wednesday after more than a month away.
Ilse Marilu, 24, arrived in Tijuana Tuesday night with her 3-year-old daughter after joining 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.
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. … all against Trump and Trump against all, "he said.
Tuesday, about twenty migrants climbed the steel fence to celebrate their arrival, chanting: "Yes, we could!". A man fell briefly on the US side while border officials were watching from a distance. He ran quickly towards the fence.
Cesar Palencia Chavez, head of migrant services in Tijuana, said the authorities had offered to immediately take the migrants to shelters, but that they had initially refused.
"They wanted to stay together in one shelter," said Palencia Chavez, "but for the moment it's not possible" because the shelters are designed for smaller groups and usually offer separate facilities for men, women and families.
But he said that after their visit to the border, most had been taken to shelters in groups of 30 or 40.
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 the church was able to get "good people" buses to transport migrants to the north. He said 24 buses had left Escuinapa after an eight-hour drive to Navojoa in the state of Sonora.
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. Referring to the first group that arrives at the end of the trip, Pineda said, "If they can, there is no reason we can not."
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, the government reported.
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Elliot Spagat, an Associated Press reporter, reported in Tijuana, Mexico, and Maria Verza, AP writer, in Escuinapa, Mexico.
