Migrant Caravan: Buses carrying asylum seekers arrive at US Border
HUNDREDS of migrants have arrived at the US border with authorities warning they can’t let anymore people in.
HUNDREDS of immigrants labelled as a threat by the Trump administration have arrived at the United States border as authorities warn the crossing had hit capacity.
Central American migrants who travelled in a caravan and planned to try to seek asylum in the US arrived at San Diego’s border crossing following a long and dangerous journey.
However, officials announced the San Ysidro port of entry had reached capacity even before they arrived.
Nearly 200 migrants, many travelling with children, had decided to apply for protection at the crossing at San Diego, organisers said.
US Customs and Border Protection said the crossing can take in additional people only as space and resources become available.
The agency has said the port can hold about 300 people temporarily.
The group who journeyed to the US border in a caravan resolved to turn themselves in and ask for asylum in a direct challenge to the Trump administration.
ANXIOUS WAIT
Rodulfo Figueroa, the top Mexican immigration official in Baja California state, told caravan organisers to send in an initial group of 20 migrants to see if US border inspectors would entertain their request for asylum.
Mr Figueroa said he doesn’t know if they will be allowed in and hasn’t received word from US immigration officials.
The migrants marched a short distance through downtown Tijuana and across a bridge to the nation’s busiest border crossing, many carrying Honduran flags and chanting.
The caravan gained attention after US President Donald Trump and members of his Cabinet called it a threat to the United States.
The Central Americans will test the administration’s tough rhetoric when they begin seeking asylum at San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing.
Meanwhile, a lawyer working for the group has expressed disbelief at the authorities claim who say they cannot process more asylum seekers at the San Diego border crossing until its backlog eases.
Lawyer Nicole Ramos said US Customs and Border Protection knew the migrants were going to arrive at the US-Mexico border but failed to prepare with sufficient agents and resources.
Despite the news, the group still started walking toward San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing.
DEATH THREATS
Many of those in the caravan are fleeing violence in their home countries.
People are rallying on both sides of the US-Mexico border in support of Central American asylum seekers and one of those planning to turn herself in to US authorities said she felt hopeful.
Maria de Los Angeles said she felt confident after speaking with a lawyer that she’d be released while her case winds through the courts because she was travelling alone with her one-year-old son.
The 17-year-old hoped to move in with a sister in San Francisco and said she believed “everything will work out”.
She said she fled her home in Honduras because the father of her son threatened to kill her and their child.
Nefi Hernandez, also of Honduras, said he intended to seek asylum with his wife and infant daughter, who was born on the journey through Mexico.
Mr Hernandez, 24, said a gang in his hometown of San Pedro Sula threatened to kill him and his family if he did not sell drugs.
Jose Cazares, 31, said he faced death threats in the Honduran city of Yoro because a gang member suspected of killing the mother of his children learned one of Cazares’ sons reported the crime to police.
Gabriela Hernandez, who is pregnant, left her home in northwest Honduras to join the caravan as they headed across Mexico.
With young sons, the family crossed Guatemala to make it to the southern Mexican border city of Tapachula before continuing on to Tijuana and San Diego, a journey of 4800kms.
She told CNN, she survived sickness, a trash train and travelled thousands of kilometres.
Ms Hernadez said she joined the caravan with religious roots organised by Pueblo Sin Fronteras, for safety reasons with many migrants robbed, assaulted, and kidnapped along the way.
TRUMP’S FURY
It isn’t the first time a caravan of migrants have travelled to the US border.
However, this one is creating more attention thanks to Mr Trump who has heavily criticised the group over Twitter.
The President has also asked Mexico to do more to stop the group travelling to the border and warned the US won’t accept the group.
The Mexican government has agreed to grant permission to the group to stay in the country while they are travelling through, CNN reported.
Just last week Mr Trump warned the group wouldn’t be allowed into his country, and called the caravan a disgrace.
Despite the Democrat inspired laws on Sanctuary Cities and the Border being so bad and one sided, I have instructed the Secretary of Homeland Security not to let these large Caravans of people into our Country. It is a disgrace. We are the only Country in the World so naive! WALL
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 23, 2018
It isn’t illegal to enter the US at a port of entry and ask for asylum and the US must consider asylum claims under international law.
The group insist they will turn themselves in and ask for asylum and won’t sneak across the border.
DANGEROUS JOURNEY
The migrants made their way northward by foot, freight train and bus over the past month, many of them saying they feared for their lives in their home countries.
The Trump administration has been tracking the caravan, calling it a threat to the United States since it started in Mexico on March 25 near the Guatemala border.
Attorney-General Jeff Sessions has called the caravan “a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system”.
Administration officials have also railed against what they call America’s “catch and release” policies that allow people requesting asylum to be released from custody into the US while their claims make their way through the courts, a process that can last a year.
— With AP
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