Standoff between ‘migrant caravan’ and US border authorities ends

Latin America

FILE – In this April 26, 2018 file photo, migrants in a caravan of Central American asylum-seekers board a bus in Mexicali, Mexico for a two-hour drive to Tijuana to join up with about 175 others who already arrived. (AP Photo/Hans-Maximo Musielik, File)

The final Central American migrants stranded at the the U.S.-Mexico border have a chance at asylum. The last 70 have been let into the U.S. to seek sanctuary. But if history is an indicator, their chances are slim.

CGTN’s Alasdair Baverstock reports.


Central American migrants tell personal stories of why they’re seeking US asylum

At the U.S.-Mexico border, CGTN’s Alasdair Baverstock spoke to some of the migrants of the caravan. They told him stories of why they’ve come so far, for such an uncertain future.


More from Reuters

Dozens more Central American caravan migrants were let into the United States to begin pleading their case for asylum on Thursday. This comes despite sharp criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump, and brings the total to 158 since last weekend.

Seventy men, women and children were allowed into the crowded port of entry border crossing early Thursday morning, according to Alex Mensing, a caravan organizer with advocacy group Pueblos Sin Fronteras. Another 62 migrants were still waiting for a chance to begin the asylum process, he said.

On Monday, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions beefed up legal resources on the border, including more prosecutors and judges, to handle the groups of people from the caravan.

Throughout the caravan’s 2,000-mile (3,220-km) odyssey from southern Mexico, its mostly Honduran, Salvadoran and Guatemalan members kept hoping they would ultimately get the chance to make their case for asylum in the United States. All the while, they have known their pleas might be rejected.

U.S. border officials had allowed through only small groups at a time, saying the busy San Ysidro crossing to San Diego was saturated and the rest must be patient.
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Reuters staffers Delphine Schrank, David Alire Garcia and David Gregorio contributed to this report.