REPORT: CARAVAN OF OVER 1,300 CENTRAL AMERICANS EN ROUTE TO U.S.
Report: Caravan Of Over 1,300 Central Americans En Route to U.S.
Published: Fri, Mar 30th 2018 @ 3:26 pmEDT
On March 25th, a caravan of about 1,350 Central American migrants started a trip from the City of Tapachula on the Mexico-Guatemala border to the United States. The journey is being organized by Pueblos Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders), although the migrants are responsible for their own food and water. The migrants plan to reach the U.S. border and either apply for asylum or slip away from the group to cross illegally.
Accordingto TelesurTV, the migrants are demanding from Mexico and the United States, “open borders and asylum access, an end to deportations which destroy families, [and continuation of] vital migrant programs such as the Temporary Protected Status.”
Buzzfeed reports that, thus far, the migrants have crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police without being stopped. Traveling under the banner "We are all Native Americans,” the group is comprised of children, newborns with their mothers, men, and women. One migrant said the caravan was his third attempt at getting to the United States. Mexican immigration officers pulled him off a bus the last two times.
Immigration-reduction groups had warned the Administration and Congress that discussions about amnesty without serious reforms could produce another surge. When this caravan reaches the border, the Trump administration will have to deal with a huges urge of people arriving simultaneously.
https://www.numbersusa.com/news/report-caravan-over-1300-central-americans-en-route-us
A Huge Caravan Of Central Americans Is Headed For The US, And No One In Mexico Dares
The pictures at the source link speak a thousand words but unable to post unfortunately.
~~~
A Huge Caravan Of Central Americans Is Headed For The US, And No One In Mexico Dares To Stop Them
"If we all protect each other, we'll get through this together."
Posted on March 30, 2018, at 4:00 a.m.
Adolfo Flores
Taking a drag from her cigarette, a Mexican immigration agent looked out toward a caravan of migrants that grew larger with each step they took on the two-lane highway.
When the agent, who'd covered her uniform with an orange and white shawl, learned that the Central American migrants heading her way numbered more than 1,000, she took off for the restaurant across the street.
“I'm going to have a relaxing Coke,” she told BuzzFeed News.
For five days now hundreds of Central Americans — children, women, and men, most of them from Honduras — have boldly crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite their being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.
Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, bypassing not only authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.
Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.
“If we all protect each other we'll get through this together,” Abeja yelled through a loudspeaker on the morning they left Tapachula, on Mexico's border with Guatemala, for the nearly monthlong trek.
When they get to the US, they hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally. More likely is that it will set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration's immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.
The number of people who showed up to travel with the caravan caught organizers by surprise, and has overwhelmed the various towns they've stopped in to spend the night. Pueblos Sin Fronteras counted about 1,200 people on the first day.
About 80% of them are from Honduras. Many said they are fleeing poverty, but also political unrest and violence that followed the swearing in of Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández after a highly contested election last year. The group often breaks into chants of “out with JOH.” They also chant “we aren't immigrants, we're international workers” and “the people united will never be defeated.”
Sweating after miles of walking in more than 90-degree heat with her two kids, Karen said conditions in Honduras were so bad she decided to take a chance with the caravan. She declined to give her full name.
“The crime rate is horrible, you can't live there,” Karen told BuzzFeed News on the side of a highway near Huixtla, a town in Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. “After the president [was sworn in] it got worse. There were deaths, mobs, robbed homes, adults and kids were beaten up.”
Before setting out on the journey, the migrants were organized into groups of 10 to 15 people, and a leader was designated for each group. Five groups were then banded together in what organizers call a sector. While there are organizers from Pueblos Sin Fronteras leading the way, much of the effort to get to the US border is in the hands of the migrants themselves.
They've been organized into security, food, and logistics committees. Organizers say it's meant to help the migrants empower themselves.
Sandra Perez, 40, who's also from Honduras, is one of two women who belong to the security committee. It's not her first caravan: She has traveled with a procession of Central American mothers through Mexico in search of disappeared migrants.
“I like doing this, it makes me happy and I feel useful,” she told BuzzFeed News.
Twenty-nine-year-old Mateo Juan said the caravan was his third attempt at getting to the United States. Seven months ago, Mexican immigration officers pulled him off the bus. The same happened about a month ago.
He heard about the caravan in March when he arrived in Tapachula, the caravan's starting point.
“Going alone is risky. You're risking an accident, getting jumped by robbers, and even your life,” he told BuzzFeed News. “All of that, and then you don't get to the United States. The caravan is slower but you know you're going to get there safely.”
Still, there are no guarantees on the route or assurances that once they reach the US border they'll be able to cross undetected or be allowed to stay under some type of protection like asylum.
Alex Mensing, another organizer with Pueblos Sin Fronteras, made that point clear to the migrants before the group started out. He also stressed that everyone is responsible for their own food, water, and payment for vans or buses. Still, it's far cheaper than being assaulted or falling into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers.
“I'm here to work together with the people who had to leave their countries for whatever reason,” Mensing said through a loudspeaker. “We're fighting together. We're not here to give anyone papers and we're not here to give anyone food.”
Mensing said Pueblos Sin Fronteras isn't calling on people to make the trek, but if they're going to try to go through Mexico on the way to the United States, the group will help them.
The caravan propels itself forward using whatever way it can. Sometimes that means packing into the back of a truck, negotiating lower rates for vans, or hitching a ride on the back of empty big rigs from whatever town they're in. The group sleeps in town plazas. Local townspeople and churches feed them.
In the evening, when the group settles in for the night, the kids play in playgrounds or dart among the crowd, chasing one another. Teenagers and adults play soccer using rocks as goal posts.
On Tuesday, the caravan had plans to board the freight train known as “the Beast” or sometimes “the Train of Death” in Arriaga to speed the journey north. It's a dangerous part of the journey, with death and injury only too possible from a precarious perch atop a rail car, and the group practiced boarding, one woman in a purple shirt slowly making her way up a parked train's ladder while the crowd below cheered her on. On another train car, men wearing backpacks steadily made their way up one by one.
“This is so the women and children can lose their fear, know what it's like to board the train, and turn back if they want,” Irineo Mujica, director of Pueblos Sin Fronteras, told the crowd.
But the train Mujica hoped would move the entire group to Puebla, one of their stops, never came, and in the end the group boarded trucks and school buses to cover the distance to San Pedro Tapanatepec, a town in the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
The move to the trucks was frantic, as people jostled for the limited space, and the security committees made a chain to hold people back. Mostly women and children wearing backpacks and carrying jugs of water got on the first truck.
Moving the entire group took hours, and some of the men, unable to gain a space in the vehicles, walked all night to join the rest of the group. On Friday, Good Friday, the organizers hope to board the Beast at another location.
Mujica said he was left with a sense of disbelief at seeing so many people go through such hardship in search of a better life.
“I can't imagine my son walking on top of these trains. I can't imagine hiding my children just to get to a city that's four hours away,” Mujica said. “These are good people who are suffering as if they were slaves and putting their kids' lives at risk. But it is what it is.”
https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflore...zZB#.fbMggWxGm
Caravan of Central American Illegal Aliens Heads to the U.S.
By Kausha Luna on March 30, 2018
As part of Holy Week, over a thousand Central American illegal aliens set out to complete a "Stations of the Cross", traversing through Mexico, to reach the United States' southern border. Upon arrival, they hope to make asylum claims.
The caravan, marching under the slogan "Migrantes en la lucha" ("Migrants in the Fight"), was announced about a month ago by the group Pueblo Sin Fronteras. The organization asked for donations on its Facebook page and encouraged people to send them a message if they were interested in volunteering. The organization's mission statement reads as follows, ''Our mission is to provide shelter and safety to migrants and refugees in transit, accompany them in their journey, and together demand respect for our human rights."
As early as March 18, participants gathered in Tapachula, on Mexico's southern border (the point of departure). Organizers shared a video on their Facebook page which showed the migrants playing ice-breaker games. According to the post, the organization also conducted some introductory workshops.
Prior to their departure, a member of the caravan shared about his prior attempt to request asylum in the United States. The man noted he was held at a detention center for a year and half and subsequently deported. He asked the group members to carefully consider their decision to request asylum, emphasizing that it is "not easy" and it is not just a matter of turning oneself in and saying this or the other.
Additionally, the group practiced security protocols, including formations which called for the men of the group to form a wall around the women and children. Moreover, the Central Americans made their way to Mexico's Commission for Refugee Assistance and made calls for better compliance with international and national laws, faster processing of asylum applications, and an increase in acceptance rates.
Five days ago, the caravan set out from Tapachula and began its trek northward. The group chanted "We are migrants. We are not criminals. We are workers." (About 80 percent of the group members are Hondurans.) As they've continued to make their way to the U.S., Mexican immigration authorities have allowed the migrants to move with relative ease. On Monday Pueblo Sin Fronteras posted a video with the caption, "The Refugee Caravan knocking down borders yesterday in Huehuetan! Immigration agents abandoned the post when they saw us coming. The people celebrate this first small victory!"
Along the way, the caravan has also received support and supplies from local communities. Reports indicate that the group, up to this point, has chosen to not climb on top of "La Bestia", a train used by illegal migrants to expedite their trek to the U.S. However, it hopes to utilize the train later in the trek. (BuzzFeed reports that members of the caravan have practiced by climbing the ladders of parked train cars.) In 2014, as part of the "Southern Border Plan" (an initiative to curb illegal immigration), the Mexican government implemented measures to keep people off the train.
According to the director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, from April 5 to April 9, a series of workshops will be hosted in Puebla, Mexico, by U.S. and Mexican lawyers. The workshops will provide legal guidance on the issue of asylum or refuge in Mexico and United States.
In January President Trump issued three executive orders addressing various immigration issues, including border control. These were followed by policy memoranda from Department of Homeland Security, which was then headed by John Kelly (now White House chief of staff). One of the points addressed was President Obama's "catch -and-release'' policy at the border. Catch-and-release allowed non-Mexican illegal aliens who crossed the border to be let go with a notice to appear for an immigration court hearing years later, which was generally ignored. Now, under the policies of the Trump administration, asylum claims made by border crossers are reviewed promptly by asylum officers and immigration judges that have been deployed to the border areas. The administration also issued new guidance to asylum officers instructing that asylum cases must be adjudicated strictly according to the law, and not under the loose interpretations of asylum qualifications used in years prior. After the implementation of these policies, the number of illegal alien arrivals drastically declined. (However, these numbers have started to rise again).
Once the caravan arrives at the U.S. border, it will be critical for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to lean on the new directives provided by the Trump administration. It will be an opportunity to reiterate the message that the United States is serious about border enforcement. Otherwise, the message sent to prospective migrants would be that such caravans are a promising option for gaining access to the United States.
https://cis.org/Luna/Caravan-Central...liens-Heads-US
Hondurans Broke their Own Country, Now They’re Headed Here
By MATT O'BRIEN March 30, 2018
https://immigrationreform.com/wp-con...ns-702x459.jpg
Buzzfeed recently reported on a caravan of roughly 1,200 Hondurans, and other Central Americans, that is making their way across Mexico, toward the American border. Styling themselves as “international workers,” they have been organized by an organization known as Pueblos Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders) “into security, food, and logistics committees.”
Who exactly is Pueblos Sin Fronteras? For a public-issue group, its website is remarkably skimpy on meaningful information. However, it describes its goal as building “solidarity bridges among peoples and [turning down]border walls imposed by greed.” That would tend to indicate that it is a radical anti-capitalist, open-borders organization. As would the fact that the group advertises “refugee caravans” as if they were a form of political theater.
Its leadership seems to consist mainly of kooky extremists. A few examples: Alex Mensing, whose main claim to fame appears to be prior employment with a San Francisco company that makes novelty neckties out of wood. And Gina Garibo, a self-described scholar of “necropolitics,” a pseudo-intellectual field that purports to study how societies dictate who may live and who must die.
Those assisting the current caravan have characterized their efforts as, helping “the migrants empower themselves.” And they have stated their hope that, “the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.”
If the approach sounds eerily familiar, that’s because it is. The tactics being employed by Pueblos Sin Fronteras are exactly those preferred by devotees of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. The overall goal appears to be to, “set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration’s immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.” In other words, create a media circus like the one that accompanied the massing of unaccompanied alien minors (UAM) along the southern border, which reached its peak in 2014.
That seems a stretch. While the Border Patrol was challenged in certain locations by the UAM crisis, it didn’t bring a halt to all border enforcement. Criminals who prey on illegal aliens may think twice about attacking a column of 1,200 people. However, dealing with several thousand border jumpers represents a relatively quiet morning in many Border Patrol sectors.
Regardless of how effective its efforts turn out to be the Pueblos Sin Fronteras caravans demonstrate the extent to which the immigration debate has gone off the rails. A group of American and Mexican citizens, masquerading as an aid organization, has deliberately set out to violate scads of both Mexican and American laws. And, to date, the United States doesn’t appear to have lodged a single diplomatic protest with the Mexican government over its utter failure to stop the mini-invasion.
This is how American sovereignty dies, not with a bang but a whimper.
https://immigrationreform.com/2018/0...theyre-headed/
