A new migrant caravan left Honduras late on Jan. 14 as another wave of migrants tries to make it to the United States to claim asylum or illegally cross the border and disappear into the country.
Thousands of migrants worked their way through Central America and Mexico to reach the U.S.-Mexico border in 2018, resulting in multiple clashes with American Border Patrol agents. Some migrants snuck into the United States while others waited and entered through official entrances to claim asylum. Still, others turned back home or were deported by Mexico or the United States.
The first group in the new caravan left San Pedro Sula’s bus station Monday night, taking buses headed to the Honduras-Guatemala border.
Others trudged along on foot under a steady rain.
More left on Tuesday morning.
Honduran media reported that the country’s authorities had reinforced the border with Guatemala to make sure everyone had proper documentation. Children must carry passports and written parental authorization to leave the country, and parents could face up to three years in prison if found to be taking a child without the right documents, Security Minister Julian Pacheco was quoted as saying.
Jenny Arguello, a migrant rights’ activist who was with the caravan, said police patrols were not blocking them but were checking IDs.
Bartolo Fuentes, who helped organize the previous migrant caravan, was also among those accompanying the new caravan.
He claimed that violence in Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala prompt people to leave for the United States.
The few migrants quoted in news articles cited gang violence and poverty as the impetus to try to go to the United States; neither are accepted conditions under America’s asylum rules. “I’m determined to find a good job in the United States,” 24-year-old caravan member Darwin Perez told Reuters.
Standoff Over Border
The continuing waves of migrants to the United States has bolstered U.S. President Donald Trump’s case for a southern border wall, especially after the last migrant caravans reached the border despite many media outlets claiming for weeks that they either might not reach the border or that the caravan would dwindle in size.On Nov. 25, 2018, a mob of migrants tried storming the United States border, attempting to overwhelm American Border Patrol agents, but most were turned back by the barrier there and tear gas that the agents fired.
Eventually, the group was moved away from the border. Some began trickling across the border in small groups while others stayed in Mexico near the border. More than 7,000 others returned to Honduras, Honduran officials told Reuters.
Trump said in December 2018 that he wouldn’t approve funding for part of the U.S. government unless it included money for the border wall, citing “a humanitarian crisis” as unprecedented numbers of family units cross into the country. He also noted that many migrants are preyed upon as they journey to the United States, raped, extorted, and even killed.
Democrats, with a new majority in the House, have refused to pass any funding for the wall, leading to the current impasse that has seen the government partially shut down since before Christmas.
A scheduled lunch meeting on Tuesday was boycotted by Democrats while Trump continues threatening to declare a national emergency as illegal aliens breach the border and undermine U.S. sovereignty. Democrats, on the other hand, said that a wall is unnecessary but that funding should focus on upgraded technology. They haven’t specified what technology would prevent groups of migrants from breaching the border.
