Migrants in Tijuana Regret the Caravan: "I'm Done with the United States"
Migrants in Tijuana Regret the Caravan: ‘I’m Done With the United States’
TIJUANA, Mexico—After fleeing tear gas shot at the U.S. border, Carlos González confessed confusion and second thoughts about the caravan that carried him to doorstep of his dream: life in the United States.
The 40-year-old corn farmer from Honduras, wearing a pink breast cancer awareness hat and an orange work vest, had hopped on the caravan of Central American migrants figuring it would facilitate his entry into the country.
It set out from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on Oct. 12 and for five weeks he could hope and dream—especially as the caravan pushed past police barricades and crossed through closed borders in Guatemala and Mexico.
But the U.S. border has proved impossible so far for the more than 7,000 migrants anxiouslyarriving in Tijuana, where they’re waiting in the squalor of a small baseball stadium-turned-tent city. It’s just a stone’s throw from the border they hope to cross, which many could not imagine would be so difficult.
Carlos González traveled to Tijuana with the caravan of Central American migrants. He expressed regret with his decision, saying the U.S. border was tougher to cross than he expected.
“I thought it would be easy,” said González, who traveled north with his wife and two children, ages 4 and 3. He said his family was planning to sign up with Mexican officials for voluntary repatriation.
“We’re here alone, hungry, unprotected. My daughter is sick with diarrhea,” he said from a street by Tijuana’s El Chaparral border crossing, where he hoped to make a little money washing cars. “I don’t want to lose my kids, lose my life.”
Scenes of migrants fleeing tear gas shot their way by U.S. Border Patrol brought condemnation and accusations of excess. The Sunday protest was peaceful, several participants told The Daily Beast. The protesters, including women and children, first encountered Mexican police, but detoured around them and headed toward the border.
There, according to U.S.Customs and Border Patrol, they breached the fence.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/migrants-in-tijuana-regret-the-caravan-im-done-with-the-united-states?yptr=yahoo