Central American migrants in a caravan that has stopped in Mexico City demanded buses Thursday to take them to the U.S. border, saying it is too cold and dangerous to continue walking and hitchhiking.
Mexico City authorities say that of the 4,841 registered migrants receiving shelter in a sports complex, 1,726 are under the age of 18, including 310 children under five.
“We need buses to continue travelling,” said Milton Benitez, a caravan coordinator. Benitez noted that It would be colder in northern Mexico and it wasn’t safe for the migrants to continue along highways, where drug cartels frequently operate.
He said the route and departure time would be decided at a meeting Thursday night.
The Mexican government has said most of the migrants have refused offers to stay in Mexico, and only a small number have agreed to return to their home countries. About 85 per cent of the migrants are from Honduras, while others are from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.
“California is the longest route but is the best border, while Texas is the closest but the worst” border, said Jose Luis Fuentes of the National Lawyers Guild to gathered migrants.
There have already been reports of migrants on the caravan going missing, though that is often because they hitch rides on trucks that turn off on different routes, leaving them lost.
However, the UN human rights agency said its office in Mexico had filed a report with prosecutors in the central state of Puebla about two buses that migrants boarded in the last leg of the trip to Mexico City early this week, and whose whereabouts are not known.
Mexico City is itself nearly 1,000 kilometres from the nearest U.S. border crossing at McAllen, Texas, and a previous caravan in the spring opted for a much longer route to Tijuana in the far northwest, across from San Diego. That caravan steadily dwindled to only about 200 people by the time it reached the border.
Fuentes warned the migrants that if they are separated from their children they should “say they want a lawyer and not sign any paper.”
Other activists and officials explained the options available to migrants in Mexico, which has offered them refuge, asylum or work visas. The government said 2,697 temporary visas had been issued to individuals and families to cover them while they wait for the 45-day application process for a more permanent status.
Marlon Ivan Mendez, a farm worker from Copan, Honduras, was waiting in line for donated shoes to replace the worn ones he has used since leaving his country three weeks ago. He said he left because gangs were charging him rent to live in his own home.
“It is not fair that the good ones pay for the sinners,” Mendez said of fears that gang members are coming with the caravan.
Christopher Gascon, the Mexico representative for the International Organization for Migration, estimated there are perhaps another 4,000 people in caravans that are working their way through southern Mexico.
But some migrants had been visiting the organization’s tent asking about how they can return home.
On Wednesday night, a bus left from Mexico City to return 37 people to their countries of origin.
Nora Torres, clutching a Styrofoam cup of tea, was rethinking everything. A day earlier she had been committed to at least reaching a Mexican border city where she heard there were good-paying jobs. But Thursday she said she was thinking of returning to her hometown of Puerto Cortes, Honduras.
“Spending so much time in one place makes me desperate,” said Torres.
In the stadium, hundreds of Mexico City employees and even more volunteers helped sort donations and direct migrants toward food, water, diapers and other basics. Migrants searched through piles of clothes and grabbed boxes of milk for children.
Darwin Pereira, a 23-year-old construction worker from Olanchito, Honduras, left his country with his wife and son, 4, for the very simple reason that “there is no work there.”
Pereira, who still wears the same cheap plastic sandals he left Honduras with a month ago, thought about what he would do if he met the U.S. president.
“If I meet Donald Trump, I am going to cry. I will cry because there is nothing else to do,” he said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/caravan-migrants-trump-1.4897562
I CAN’T SOP LAUGHING LONG ENOUGH TO SAY SOMETHING MEANINGFUL, EXCEPT; THEY W I L L GET THOSE BUSES………
And it will be paid for, probably out of our military budget, certainly not out of Israel’s or Mexico’s or Honduras’. I mean, hell, we paid billions of dollars to bring these invaders to our borders, and it is a good thing because we are aiding our greatest, most wonderful, just can’t do without it, ally and friend, Israel in their military operations.
YEP. WE ARE INDEED ISRAELS BITCH. WE HAVE BEEN FROM THE BEGINNING BROTHER. IT IS TIME TO SEPARATE THE WHORE OF BABYLON FROM THE AMERICAN NATIONAL!! MORE TO COME ON THIS SUBJECT……….KICK OUT THE FEDERAL RESERVE!!!!!! ABOLISH THE UN!!!!!
GREAT SHOW BY THE WAY
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE CHILREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!
Since all the U.S. (Trump) is going to do is allow these people into America and then bus and plane them into the interior, why doesn’t the U.S. just fly in a few transports and pick them up at the airport thus saving them time on the road?
Demands ?
Wow
Just wait for the “demands” they are going to have when they get here
Like to see anyone from here demand anything if they were in Mexico
I can just hear the laughing now
Jajajajajaja
Well I got a fkng demand.
Get up here and cut my fkng grass .
Trim my bushes …
And… if you do a good job.
I’ll let your beautiful daughter fk me
That’s what I call Capitalization.
What does the barber say.. ?
Next. !!!
Now. .
A word from our sponsors …
“Mexico City authorities say that of the 4,841 registered migrants receiving shelter in a sports complex, 1,726 are under the age of 18, including 310 children under five.”
OH BOY! CBC is playing the “THINK OF THE CHILDREN” rhetoric again. The MSM just can’t write an article or report on a subject like this without mentioning “THE CHILDREN”.
Oh PUHHLEASSEE!!! I’m laughing my ass off here.
“California is the longest route but is the best border, while Texas is the closest but the worst” border, said Jose Luis Fuentes of the National Lawyers Guild to gathered migrants.”
Well everyone, they’re stupid enough to tell us where most of them are going to be, so suit up and take them out. What are you waiting for? It’s our country and we don’t need some Jew, bird’s nest headed wanna be president to tell us what to do.
““It is not fair that the good ones pay for the sinners,” Mendez said of fears that gang members are coming with the caravan.”
I’m sorry, I forgot the part where it says, “THAT’S MY PROBLEM!” So do something about it. Stop laying your problems on us. Grow a pair!
“Pereira, who still wears the same cheap plastic sandals he left Honduras with a month ago, thought about what he would do if he met the U.S. president.
“If I meet Donald Trump, I am going to cry. I will cry because there is nothing else to do,” he said.”
OMG!! (Rolling my eyes)
This is so pathetic. In fact, it’s the worst writing I’ve ever read from an article. I think a 3rd Grader wrote this last line because it sounds like something my former elementary students would write. Do they really expect us to even give two shits about them or even shed a tear for them? They’re truly living in their own delusional fantasy world. Who wrote the script? The only thing that I hate most other than movie remakes are movie remakes with the same exact storyline with no fresh new ideas. It shows very little initiative and no originality. LAZY!!!!