Migrants from Central America hold an El Salvador flag outside the US consulate in Tijuana, Mexico, asking American authorities to speed up the asylum application process
Tuesday morning, two groups of peacefully assembled migrants marched two hours with police escort to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana. Video of the march and speech is available online but I have been unable to find a copy of last nights Telemundo20 broadcast.
The group members held various banners as they marched, including one that read: “You got it wrong, Trump. We asked for jobs and you responded with weapons. That is not polite. If asking for work is troublesome, then I am totally confused. La Caravana.”
Organizers of the first group, numbering about 100, arrived at the U.S. Consulate at about 11 am Tuesday. The migrants said they were asking that the Trump Administration pay them $50,000 each or allow them into the U.S.
When asked how the group came up with the $50,000 figure, organizer Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa of Honduras, said they chose that number as a group.
“It may seem like a lot of money to you,” Ulloa said. “But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras.”
The group’s letter criticized American intervention in Central America. They gave the U.S. Consulate 72 hours to respond. They said they had not decided what to do if their demands were not met.
“I don’t know, we will decide as a group,” Ulloa said. Getting into the U.S. Consulate was somewhat of a victory, “They received us at least,” Ulloa said. “It was nice to be treated with respect.”
The letter said the group is made up of, “families, women and children, the majority of which are young men who are fleeing from poverty, insecurity and political repression under the dictatorship of Juan Orlando Hernandez.”
Orlando Hernandez is the president of Honduras. Their letter also asked the U.S. to remove Orlando Hernandez from office.
Getting $55,000 for each of the caravan members, Ulloa said, might allow them to go back home and start a small business.
Ulloa claims he was falsely accused of attacking a Chinese restaurant in Honduras in 1987. He has been living outside Honduras for 30 years, according to an online petition he wrote asking the U.S. government to exonerate him.
www.10news.com/...
This is from 10news but the broadcaster speaks over the migrant as he explains the letter delivery.
The second group of migrants, delivered a letter at about 1:20 p.m., came from a separate group of caravan members asking for the U.S. to speed up the asylum process. Specifically, the group asked U.S. immigration officials to admit up to 300 asylum seekers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry each day.
Currently, officials admit between 40 and 100 asylum seekers. The group of migrants say the slow pace violates American and international laws that call for an immediate process, and places vulnerable migrants at risk.
“In the meantime, families, women and children who have fled our countries continue to suffer and the civil society of Tijuana continue to be forces to confront this humanitarian crisis, a refugee crisis caused in great part by decades of U.S. intervention in Central America,” the letter states.
The second letter came from a group of about 50 migrants, including about 15 who participated in a hunger strike that also demanded a swifter U.S. asylum process. The non-profit Pueblo Sin Fronteras helped organize the delivery of the second letter.
Representatives from the second group met with Mexican immigration officials in Tijuana. The migrants asked Mexican officials to stop working with the municipal police in deporting caravan members.
Migrants thought the number of deportations and voluntary repatriations is a reflection of their precarious situation in Tijuana.
“A lot of people are leaving because there is no solution here,” said Douglas Matute, 38, of Tijuana. “We thought they would let us in. But Trump sent the military instead of social workers.”
The two groups were unaware of each other’s demands. But both said their messages were well received by the staff of the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana.
“They gave us a warm welcome,” Castillo said. “They were very kind. She said she’d send the letter to the recipients.”
Tuesday was also the one-month anniversary of their arrival into Tijuana and caravan members are pressing the United States to take action but they are dwindling in numbers since more than 6,000 first arrived to the city’s shelters.
Approximately 700 have voluntarily returned to their country of origin, 300 have been deported, and 2,500 have applied for humanitarian visas in Mexico. The group of unaccounted migrants, about 3,500 are presumed to have either crossed illegally into the United States, moved to other Mexican border cities, or simply fallen through the cracks. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/...
Tension continues to build even after the migrants were moved from their open-air field/shelter to a shelter further from the border. Telemundo reports (I couldn’t embed the video) that the arrests of migrants have exceeded 253 cases since the arrival of the caravan to Tijuana. www.telemundo20.com/…
