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By ELLIOT SPAGAT and MARIA VERZA, Associated Press
TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) – Members of a migrant caravan began to encounter some local resistance as they continued to arrive by the hundreds in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, where a group Residents were struck by migrants camped near the US border fence.
About 100 migrants declined their offer of rides to shelter and camped late Wednesday near the steel fence near Tijuana Beach, when a similar number of local residents gathered in front of the group shouting: " You are not welcome "and" Get out! "
The police kept both sides separated.
Vladimir Cruz, a migrant from El Salvador, said on Thursday: "These people are racists because 95% of people here support us."
"It's just this little group that does not support us," Cruz said. "They are uncomfortable because we are here."
Playas de Tijuana, as it is called in the area, is an enclave of the upper middle class, and locals seemed worried about crime and sanitation. A protester shouted, "It's not discrimination, it's security!"
There are real questions about how the city of Tijuana will manage the caravans of migrants that cross Mexico and can reach 10,000 people.
"No city in the world is ready to welcome so many migrants," said Mario Osuna, director of social development of Tijuana City. He added that the city hoped that the federal government would "start legalizing these people immediately" so that they could find a job and make a living in Tijuana.
The migrants, who were sleeping in overcrowded shelters and tents in order to see armed US border police appear, said they would wait for other migrants to join them before moving on.
Hundreds of migrants have arrived by bus in Tijuana since Tuesday, occupying the limited space available in the city's shelters and overflowing into a seafront square sandwiched between an old arena and a border fence surmounted by concertina son recently installed.
The first arrivals were generally warmly welcomed, despite Tijuana's shelter system to accommodate migrants at full capacity. Migrants lined up to find food while doctors controlled those fighting colds and other ailments.
Some migrants said they would seek asylum at a US border crossing, while others said they could try to evade US authorities by illegally crossing the border or possibly settling in Tijuana. However, about a dozen people polled on Wednesday said that they would firstly expect that other people from the migrant caravan would arrive and collect more information.
"We have to see what is offered to us, just so that they do not send us back to our country," said Jairon Sorto, a 22-year-old Honduran who arrived by bus on Wednesday.
Sorto said that he would consider staying in Tijuana if he could get asylum from Mexico. He stated that he had refused to take into account the offer of asylum submitted by Mexico in the south of the country because it was too close to Honduras and that it was not felt unsafe facing gangs in his country.
US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis visited US troops at the Texas border and said the deployment of military personnel ordered by President Donald Trump is a good training for the war, despite criticism according to which this effort would consist of wasting taxpayer money and a political stunt. Most of the troops are in Texas, more than 1500 km from where the caravan arrives.
Dozens of homosexual and transgender caravan participants were already lining up on Thursday to make an asylum claim, though it is not clear when they could do it.
The San Ysidro entry point, the busiest border crossing point on the US-Mexico border, handles only about 100 asylum applications per day, resulting in a waiting period of five weeks even before migrants arrive in the country. caravan do not begin to arrive.
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 still seemed to be about 600 km from the border, but recently traveled hundreds of miles a day hitchhiking on trucks and buses.
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, said the government.
Central Americans in the caravan are following many other people who have arrived in the city hoping to enter 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.
Claudia Coello, a 43-year-old Honduran, said she was exhausted after four days of hitch-hiking and bus travel from Mexico City with her two sons, two daughters-in-law and her grandchild. 1 year old son. While she was watching her daughter-in-law and grandson lying in a given tent, she said that she would wait for the caravan officials to explain her options.
Some people planted tents on the Tijuana beach, while most, like Henry Salinas, 30, of Honduras, planned to sleep outdoors. In saying that he was planning to wait for the arrival of thousands of people in the caravan, Mr Salinas said he hoped to cross the border barrier in same time, crushing 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. -he declares.
About 2,500 migrants from the second and third caravans were resting in a stadium in Mexico City where the first group stayed several days last week.
Like most members of the third caravan, the migrant Javier Pineda is from El Salvador and hopes to reach the United States. Pineda said: "If they can do it, there is no reason for us not to do it."
Maria Verza was reported in Escuinapa, Mexico.
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