Thread: Honduran migrant caravan of 2,000 crosses Guatemala border, US-bound

Honduran migrants walk past a roadblock of Guatemalan police as they make their way to the U.S., in Esquipulas, Guatemala, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. Police stopped the migrants for several hours but the travelers refused to return to the border and were eventually allowed to pass. (Moises Castillo/Associated Press)

By Sonia Perez D. | AP October 16 at 12:09 AM

ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — Hundreds of Hondurans hoping to reach the United States bedded down for the night in this Guatemalan town after that country’s authorities blinked first in attempts to halt their advance.

The group estimated at 1,600 to 2,000 people fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras marched into Guatemala in sweltering heat Monday, twice pushing past outnumbered police sent to stop them — first at the border and then at a roadblock just outside Esquipulas.

After those encounters, Mexico’s immigration authority sent out a fresh warning late Monday that the migrants would have to satisfy Mexican officials individually and that only those meeting requirements would be allowed to enter.

U.S. authorities were watching as well. Katie Waldman, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, said in a statement that the caravan was “what we see day-in and day-out at the border as a result of well-advertised and well-known catch-and-release loopholes.”

“Until Congress acts, we will continue to have de-facto open borders that guarantees future ‘caravans’ and record numbers of family units entering the country illegally,” she said.

The exhausted migrants entered Esquipulas during the evening and sought out food and places to sleep, hobbling on blistered feet. Few carried food and some residents began to organize to help feed them. Some migrants asked for money, others passing a bakery were handed bread.

The migrants arrived at the Guatemalan border singing the Honduran national anthem, praying and chanting, “Yes, we can.” The group defied an order by the Guatemalan government that they not enter.

“We have rights,” the migrants shouted.

Keilin Umana, a 21-year-old who is two months pregnant, said she was moved to migrate to save herself and her unborn child after she was threatened with death.

Umana, a nurse, said she had been walking for four days. “We are not criminals — we are migrants,” she said.

Many in the caravan traveled light, with just backpacks and bottles of water. Some pushed toddlers in strollers or carried them on their shoulders.

Carlos Cortez, a 32-year-old farmer traveling on foot with his 7-year-old son, said poverty back home made it impossible to support a family.

“Every day I earn about $5,” Cortez said. “That isn’t enough to feed my family.”

The caravan was met at the border by about 100 Guatemalan police officers. After a standoff of about two hours, the migrants began walking again. Officers did nothing to stop them, but accompanied them several miles (kilometers) into Guatemalan territory.

Officers then set up the roadblock about a mile (2 kilometers) outside Esquipulas. About 250 police kept them from advancing for three hours, telling them they had to return to the border to go through immigration. The migrants refused to budge and eventually officers again let them pass.


The caravan began as about 160 people who first gathered early Friday to depart from San Pedro Sula, one of Honduras’ most dangerous places, figuring that traveling as a group would make them less vulnerable to robbery, assault and other dangers common on the migratory path through Central America and Mexico.

Local media coverage prompted hundreds more to join during the weekend as the group moved toward Guatemala.

A day before the caravan formed, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence had urged leaders in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala to persuade their citizens to stay home and avoid the long, risky journey to the United States.

In April, President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw foreign aid from Honduras and countries that allowed transit for a similar caravan that set out from the Central American country. That caravan dwindled as the group approached the U.S. border, with some giving up along the way and others splitting off to try to cross on their own.


Historian Dana Frank, an expert on human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras, said Monday that the latest group could have political implications in the United States with the midterm elections coming up.

He said that “some in the United States will be quick to raise alarms about a supposed dangerous immigrant invasion” and that “others will view these migrants with compassion and as further evidence of the need for comprehensive immigration reform.”

Frank said the caravan’s rapid growth underscores “how desperate the Honduran people are — that they’d begin walking toward refuge in the United States with only a day pack full of belongings.”

Honduras is largely dominated by murderous gangs that prey on families and businesses, and routinely sees homicide rates that are among the highest in the world.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.66ff78e5b65f

Originally Posted by Jean

The migrants arrived at the Guatemalan border singing the Honduran national anthem, praying and chanting, “Yes, we can.” The group defied an order by the Guatemalan government that they not enter.

If you are fleeing violence, why do you enter another country singing the national anthem of the country you are fleeing violence from?

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

If you are fleeing violence, why do you enter another country singing the national anthem of the country you are fleeing violence from?

Good point. And reminds me of the same chant here with some waving Mexican flags.

You do not have rights to come to the United States. You have ZERO RIGHTS to come here. You do have rights in your country to plant a garden to feed your family and to form a union to raise your wages, but you are lazy cowards who only know how to protest. form mobs, tell false sob stories, storm borders and try to invade someone else's country. You are not migrants, you're con artist, socialist, radical, criminal illegal aliens, the most disgusting, despised and dreaded people on the planet.

Originally Posted by stoptheinvaders

If you are fleeing violence, why do you enter another country singing the national anthem of the country you are fleeing violence from?

Because they aren't fleeing violence, they are the violence and bringing it here. These people all work for the cartels.

"The caravan was met at the border by about 100 Guatemalan police officers."

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And they did nothing to STOP them!

Cut off every dime of foreign aid to Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras!

Do not let them cross our border!

SIGN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TODAY SO THEY GO NO FURTHER!

NO ASYLUM AT PORTS OF ENTRY!

Originally Posted by Judy

God Bless Guatemala, love the sight of those troops, thank you Guatemala, shut it down, turn this mob back. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!

Guess that was a wasted thank you.

Not at all. These countries need to know we appreciate their efforts to stop this before it gets to US, even if it doesn't work out.

Originally Posted by Judy

Not at all. These countries need to know we appreciate their efforts to stop this before it gets to US, even if it doesn't work out.

Huh? We must be reading different articles. From what I can tell there was no real effort to stop the caravan. Did you see something I didn't? Lining up a couple hundred police officer to look nice in their uniforms for the cameras isn't much of an effort. Unless I missed it, there was no physical effort to halt the continued excursion of future U.S. illegals and asylum seekers. So no, we shouldn't be thanking them, however, we should be expressing our disappointment at their lack of effort!

I'm sure they're afraid of creating an international incident. However, whatever their reasoning is for doing nothing won't benefit us one iota in the end. Hopefully Mexico will have better luck.

“Guatemala does not promote or endorse irregular migration in any forms, and therefore rejects movements organized for unlawful purposes which distort or use human rights, like migration, for their own end,” the statement said.


But in the end, the caravan crossed into Guatemala. The trip to Tapachula on the Mexican border was expected to take several days.


Guatemala couldn't stop the people in the caravan because they are allowed to pass through by law.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...uatemala-trump