Thousands of Caravan Migrants Request Temporary Asylum in Mexico; Some Try Returning to US
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Thousands of Central American migrants, many of them from Honduras, are taking Mexico up on its offer of temporary asylum and work visas.
Mexican immigration officials said Sunday that 3,691 people associated with various migrant caravans have registered for temporary status in the country, and the number is expected to grow as more people arrive at the border with Guatemala.
Meanwhile, local officials in the southern town of Huixtla provided several buses to transport some of the more than 2,000 migrants on the next stage of their journey towards Tijuana. Others weren’t so lucky and pressed on in blistering 90-degree heat.
Mexico has promised to allow migrants through the border crossing as long as they are orderly, and the country's new government has agreed to house third-country asylum-seekers while their claims are heard in the United States. The caravan is estimated to contain 1,800 people, including about 100 from El Salvador.
One migrant from Honduras told Fox News on Sunday that he was in the first caravan that reached the US-Mexico border last October. The man said he made it to San Diego illegally, was caught and deported.
Another migrant named “Alex,” who previously received protection under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, told Fox News he grew up in Indiana after being brought to the US from El Salvador as an infant. Alex said he received a letter nine months ago, after he turned 18, informing him that his DACA status was expiring and that he had 24 days to return to El Salvador or face prosecution.
Alex told Fox News he did’t know what to do as he watched the ongoing battle over immigration policy play out in Washington.
“I just want to get back to the life I had," he said. "It's all I know."
Also Sunday, a second caravan set out in the morning from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the same location from which the current caravan originated last week. Local reports said that caravan had more than 1,000 people in it.
The second caravan's departure coincided with calls for a week-long national strike in Honduras to protest the policies of the country's president, Juan Orlando Hernandez.
