The members of the migrant caravan refuse the offer to stay in Mexico: "No, we are heading north!"

Migrants from Central AmericaARRIAGA, Mexico – Several thousand migrants from Central America declined a Mexican benefit offer when they applied for refugee status and remained in the two southernmost states of the country, pledging to surrender on Saturday before Dawn to continue their long journey to the US border.

The Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced what he called the plan "You are at home", offering refuge, medical care, education and jobs to the Central Americans of the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca where they doing so, which is a first step towards permanent refugee status. The authorities indicated that more than 1,700 people had already applied for refugee status.

But after one of the longest days of caravan truck walking and hanging, most of the migrants were noisy Friday night in their refusal to accept a passage that was unsafe on the US border.

"Thank you!" they shouted by voting against the offer of show of hands in the city of Arriaga. They then added, "No, we are heading north!"

Oscar Sosa, 58, of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, aged 58, agreed, at the edge of the village square.

"Our goal is not to stay in Mexico," Sosa said. "Our goal is to go to (US) We want a passage, that's all."

Still 1,000 kilometers from the nearest US border crossing in McAllen, Texas, the trip could be twice as long if the group headed to the Tijuana-San Diego border, as had another caravan earlier this year. About 200 people from this group managed to get to the border.

Although such caravans of migrants have regularly occurred over the years, passing largely unnoticed, they have attracted sustained attention this year after the strong opposition of US President Donald Trump. He has publicly expressed his frustration about the caravan, and his administration is now considering a wide range of administrative tasks, legal and legislative options.

He tweeted a message to the migrants on Thursday: "Go back to your country and if you wish, ask for citizenship as do millions of others!"

Stoking fears about the caravan and illegal immigration to rally his Republican base, the president hinted that gang members and "inhabitants of the Middle East" are mixed in the group, although he later acknowledged that there was no evidence of that.

If the group reaches the border, they may encounter one of the two results: Slow bureaucracy or radical implementation.

On Friday, the Pentagon approved a request for additional troops on the southern border, which could reach several hundred, to help the US Border Patrol while Trump seeks to transform concerns about immigration and security. to the caravan in electoral gains in mid-November, November 6. .

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has endorsed the Department of Homeland Security's request for help and authorized the military to define details such as size, composition and estimated cost deployments, according to a US official who requested anonymity. to Associated Press discuss planning that has not been announced publicly yet.