A migrant caravan in the USA is a crowded unorganized march of peasants, plantation workers, teenagers fleeing poverty and crime, from the countries of Central America to the southern borders of the United States. He left San Pedro de Sula in Honduras on October 12, 2018. On November 19, he arrived in the city of Tijuana in Mexico and camped in an open-air stadium. According to various estimates, the number of participants is from 7 to 10 thousand people. [one]
Central American migrant caravans, also known as Viacrucis del Migrante (“The Way of the Migrants Cross”), are migrant caravans organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders) that set off during Holy Week in early 2017 and 2018. It consists of people who fled from gang violence, poverty and political repression from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), from caravans from the Guatemalan-Mexico border to the Mexico-US border. In previous years, there were also small unrelated caravans and a large unofficial caravan at the end of 2018.
Content
History
Pueblo Sin Fronteras supported their first Holy Week caravan in 2017.
On March 25, 2018, a group of approximately 700 migrants (80% from Honduras ) began their journey north from Tapachula . By April 1, the caravan arrived in Matias Romero , Oaxaca , and grew to 1,200. In mid-April, 500 migrants continued to move north from Mexico City - the last official stop of the caravan - towards Tijuana, in separate groups on the roofs of freight train wagons. Two buses with migrants arrived in Tijuana on April 25, and four more buses departed from Hermosillo . On April 29, 2018, breaking 2,500 miles (4,000 km) through Mexico, the migrant caravan came to an end in the Friendship Park on the border of Mexico and the United States in Tijuana.
More than 150 migrants are ready to seek asylum from US immigration officials. US Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the caravan "a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and destroy our system." On April 30, the Office of Justice announced a criminal charge against eleven people for illegally crossing the border.
US assistant Scott Warren was arrested May 12 on charges of illegally sheltering people in the country, hours after the publication of a report accusing the U.S. border patrol of faking water sources for migrants crossing the Arizona desert. He pleaded not guilty, and his court was scheduled for November 14, 2018.
Late 2018 caravans
On October 2, migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador gathered in San Pedro Sula , the second largest city in Honduras. The caravan began the next day, intending to reach the United States to avoid violence, poverty and political repression. The caravan began with about 160 migrants, but quickly gathered over 500 participants as it walked through Honduras. Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran congressman and one of the march coordinators, said the caravan’s goal was to find security in numbers while heading north. Despite the fact that he was convinced at first that the caravan was a spontaneous movement, Fuentes has since informed several news agencies that the caravan was organized and popularized through a fake social network account with his own name and photo, which has since been deleted from Facebook. Fuentes says he first heard of a fake message from Pueblo Sin Fronteras from Ireneo Mujiki. On the same day, US Vice President Mike Pence called on the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to convince their citizens to stay home. Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez advised his citizens to return home and "not allow themselves to be used for political purposes." Pueblo Sin Fronteras did not organize the October Caravan, but expressed their solidarity with it. Irineo Mujiko, director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, did not recommend a caravan to go to the United States, instead advising its members to seek refuge in Mexico.
When the caravan passed through the Guatemalan city of Chiquimula , Fuentes was arrested by the police and deported. Other Hondurans traveling by bus had their documents seized or arrested, causing migrants to walk. At the entrance to Tekun-Uman on October 18, 2018, the caravan totaled about 5,000 people, but began to decrease due to the speed of parts of the caravan and its reception in shelters in Tekun Uman. On the same day, US President Donald Trump threatened to deploy US forces and close the US-Mexico border to prevent the caravan from entering the country. Trump also threatened to cut aid to countries passing caravans. Also on October 18, two Boeing 727 aircraft were delivered to Mexico, which transported federal police officers to the border of Guatemala and Mexico. The next day, October 19, approximately 4,000 migrants gathered in Tekun Uman. Mexican officials, including the ambassador to Guatemala, demanded that migrants appear on the border individually for processing. Migrants ignored the request and crossed the bridge, crushing the Guatemalan police and Mexican barriers on the bridge, then entered Ciudad Hidalgo , Chiapas , and ran into the federal police in protective gear. After an hour-long confrontation with police, into which migrants threw shoes and stones, tear gas was used to push migrants back onto the bridge. Officials said at least six Mexican police were injured. After the hostilities ended, the migrants formed ranks and processing began by the Mexican authorities. By mid-day, migrants were allowed to enter Mexico and were taken by bus to Tapachula. According to Commissioner of the Federal Police Manelich Castile Craviotto, this was for processing and asylum. Migrants with valid visas and documents were allowed to enter immediately, while asylum seekers were held at the migration center for 45 days.
See also
- People in boats
- European Migration Crisis
- State border between the USA and Mexico
- US-Mexican Relations
- St. Louis (liner)
Notes
- ↑ Elena Kostyuchenko. Caravan // New newspaper . - 2018. - No. 134 . - S. 13-16 .