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Central American migrants traveling with a caravan to the US border at Mexico City's Cuatro Caminos metro station on Friday, bound for the state of Queretaro. The bulk of the caravan delayed his departure from the capital until Saturday. (Alfredo Estrella / AFP / Getty Images)
MEXICO – The migrant caravan began a new march towards the US border on Saturday, continuing its journey north from Mexico City after the Trump government decided to restrict asylum opportunities for unauthorized immigrants. The group had waited in the capital for almost a week, hearing bits and pieces of information about the militarization of the border and mid-term elections in the United States.
The members of the caravan did not seem discouraged, saying that it was not possible to return to their original country. They boarded the subway before dawn to get to the outskirts of the Mexican capital.
The most pressing question: how long would it take to travel 1,700 kilometers to Tijuana on the California border? Many have sworn that they would eventually go to the United States.
The Trump administration's new measures, announced Thursday, deny asylum to people entering the United States between official ports of entry. These individuals may apply for a lower status known as "suspension of removal" or protection under the Convention against Torture. One or the other would temporarily prevent their deportation, but does not allow access to a permanent legal status.
All who enter through official entry points will be able to continue to seek asylum, and many members of the caravan say this is their plan.
[[[[Trump issues decree restricting asylum protection for migrants entering the United States illegally]
"God willing, we will seek political asylum at the border," said Lourdes Martinez, 25, from La Ceiba, a coastal city in Honduras. She said that she did not anticipate any problems since she would not break the law. "I'm heading to one of the bridges, without crossing the river or anything of the sort."
She was confident that she had a chance to travel to the United States, along with her husband and their 4 year old daughter, because they were fleeing forced recruitment by the MS-13 gang into their hometown. Even when American voluntary lawyers in Mexico warned that the family could be detained for over a year during the asylum procedure, she was not deterred.
The ACLU and other civil rights groups filed lawsuits challenging the presidential proclamation a few hours before it came into effect on Saturday. The Trump decree remains a concern among lawyers, who stand out from the crowd in the stadium with their orange fluorescent hats. Twenty of them presented 10-minute summaries on asylum to migrants slumped on the stands and under plastic tents at a stadium where they were sleeping in Mexico City.
"People do not understand their rights as asylum seekers or refugees, even when they have strong asylum claims," said Arturo Viscarra, a member of the US-based National Lawyers Guild. He noted that Central Americans have been crossing the US border for decades.
[Why migrant families are seeking asylum at the border in record numbers]
But now, Viscarra said, "they have unbelievable waiting times at the points of entry" – a situation that will only worsen when the caravan reaches the border. Already, forced expectations at official crossing points, sometimes for several weeks, have led people to cross illegally. Viscarra reported having documented cases in the border town of Reynosa in which migrants with asylum applications were refused, then crossed between entry points, only to apply for asylum in the country. US authorities after their detention.
It will be impossible with the new rules, at least for the next 90 days.
Temporary shelters have been set up for the migrant caravan in the vast sports complex in Mexico City. (Alfredo Estrella / AFP / Getty Images)
Some members of the caravan did not want to hear such discouraging news. Sofia Sanchez, 40, from Cofradía, Honduras, who was traveling with her nephews, said she was more focused on the caravan unit than on hypothetical problems.
"They weaken our morale by telling us that families could be separated," Sanchez said. "I believe God will help us, and we want to reach the other side of the border."
Trump's move applies to all those who cross the border without papers, but it has been seen as a preventive measure against the caravan, which has angered the president since his departure from Honduras in mid-October. In the spring, a caravan also went to Tijuana, where 401 people finally asked for asylum. But at the time, the administration said it had also apprehended suspected members of the caravan who had crossed illegally.
Rodrigo Abeja, a member of the activist group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, who helped coordinate the caravan, said single men looking for work were trying the most to try to cross the entry points while others – whole families, women with unaccompanied minor children or LGBTQ migrants – would be more likely to seek asylum.
Although many remain uncertain about the decision they would take at the border, he said, they were no longer willing to sit and debate in the Mexico City stadium.
"People have no reason to wait here anymore," he said. "Many people want to reach the border, where they can wait and prepare, but with the help of their family networks."
Migrants who sometimes receive financial support from parents in the United States do not go through immediately but save to pay a smuggler or prepare evidence for their asylum applications. Others decide to stay in the cities of northern Mexico.
On Thursday, protesters held a late-night vote to determine their final destination. Many gathered around a map provided by the Red Cross showing traditional routes to the border. Some of them spread to Texas, in cities such as Ciudad Juárez and Reynosa, while another left in the direction of Tijuana. The crowd chose Tijuana, although this one is more distant than any other city with an entrance port, because it was considered to be safer and its layout allowed them to avoid the territory dominated by cartels.
The migrants traced the train lines on the map with their fingers, trying to measure the distances. In the morning, their bags would be packed. Nearly 1,000 members of the group left on Friday.
The other 4,000 or so members of the group finally chose to wait until Saturday to urge that the United Nations provide them with buses, claiming that was not satisfied. They feared that weeks of walking would be particularly painful for the children, more and more sick and exhausted along the way.
According to the Mexican authorities, nearly 2,700 people in the caravan received temporary permits while on refugee status in Mexico. In each of the cities where the group had already stopped, a small number of them decided to return home. But most have chosen to continue traveling north.
"We do not know how to go there illegally, because we find that the situation is complicated," said Marlon Miralda, 23, who was traveling with her two older brothers from Honduras. "Even if I ask for asylum, it is possible that they send me back to my country."
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