Mexico halts first attempt of migrant caravan to ask for asylum in the US

Mexico halts first attempt of migrant caravan to ask for asylum in the US



Mexican authorities detained today a first attempt by members of the Central American migrant caravan to request asylum in the United States, a country that has reinforced border security in the face of the threat of its massive arrival.

Supported by federal and local police, Mexican authorities blocked access to the El Chaparral checkpoint of some 200 of the 4,000 migrants who arrived in the border city of Tijuana in recent days.

The march of migrants to El Chaparral left the shelter they occupy in Tijuana, while US authorities closed the San Ysidro border crossing for an hour and a half for a security drill.

For almost an hour, agents from the US Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) deployed security measures as a test against the possibility of a massive arrival of migrants at this point of entry into their territory.

The CBP did not elaborate on the reasons for this atypical drill and limited itself to saying in a statement: "we are continually working on the capacity assessment of our facilities and we have been, and will continue to make, the necessary preparations."

Beta Group staff, who serve migrants who cross through Mexico in the direction of the United States, met with members of the caravan to deconvolate the march in addition to making them notice the possibility of obtaining work in Mexico.

A representative of the Beta Group told them that in Tijuana there is a wide labor supply and that having a job can help them as they make the process of requesting asylum in the United States.

The general secretary of the Government of the Mexican state of Baja California, Francisco Rueda described as an error the intention of the migrants to make "an illegal incursion that may be harmful to them."

Additionally, the Secretariat (Ministry) of Labor and Social Welfare of Mexico confirmed that the Industrial Association of the Mesa de Otay, in Tijuana, has 3,500 jobs available for migrants to regularize their immigration status.

He confirmed that there are 217 companies, Mexican and foreign, that offer jobs in Tijuana and other cities in Mexico to which migrants can move once they comply with the regularization protocols.

Meanwhile, MEP Miguel Urbán, spokesman for the Spanish party Podemos in the European Parliament, who is on a four-day observation mission for the migrant caravan in Mexico, described the statements against migrants made last week by the mayor of Mexico as unfortunate. Tijuana, Juan Manuel Gastélum.

Gastélum, of the conservative National Action Party, said then that "Tijuana is a city of migrants, but we do not want them in this way," in reference to Central Americans who have come to this city and then apply for asylum in the United States.

Urbán explained that the Central American exodus responds to a context of structural violence and poverty in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

"It is not something that we have seen only here, but it has happened in migratory phenomena outside of Central America," the legislator told media in Tijuana.

Urbán toured a sports complex in the popular northern area of ​​Tijuana that houses migrants and stressed that it is clear that there is capacity for their attention.

He stressed that the people housed "are not stuck" in tents and can protect themselves from the rain, in addition to considering that "there must be capacity for food to be inside and outside" of the facility.

Urbán has extensive experience in the subject, as he has witnessed other migrant camps in different countries.

He recommended that a network of health services be enabled inside the camp, with the aim of providing a dignified treatment to all these people, men, women and children who fled the violence in their respective countries.

"Of course there is capacity, if we show capacity and an adequate reception we send a clear message to the population of respect for human rights," said Urbán.

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