Sheinbaum said Mexico agreed to reinforce the US-Mexico border with 10,000 personnel from Mexico’s national guard to help crack down on fentanyl dissemination into the US. Sheinbaum and Trump held a call Monday morning.

The US will then work with Mexico to prevent the trafficking of weapons into America’s southern neighbor.

“We had a good conversation with President Trump with great respect for our relationship and sovereignty; we reached a series of agreements,” Sheinbaum said in a statement, per a translation.

Continue reading HERE

Source: https://nypost.com/2025/02/03/us-news/mexicos-president-announces-deal-with-trump-to-pause-tariffs-for-a-month/

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‘I can’t explain it to the American people through Congress since it’s hard to do in a five- or six-minute [television] hit,’ he said.

Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) chief Tom Homan is out with a book, which he said lays out the immigration debate before the American people and “sets the record straight” about his own positions on border security.

Homan just released “Defend the Border and Save Lives: Solving Our Most Important Humanitarian and Security Crisis,” which dives into the always-controversial topic of immigration. Homan, who spent a career in law enforcement and, most recently, as the acting director of ICE, spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation about what’s inside the book and what drove him to write it.

“I’m a cop. I never thought I’d write a book, but I wrote it pretty much out of frustration,” Homan told the DCNF.

The former ICE chief said that the complex issues taking place at the border can’t be explained in a short segment on television, nor can they be explained on the Hill, where he said the discussion on immigration enforcement quickly turns into a shouting match with lawmakers.

“So since I can’t explain it to the American people through Congress since it’s hard to do in a five- or six-minute [television] hit, I said, ‘I’ll write a book and explain to the American people the underbelly of illegal immigration,’” Homan said.

The main point that Homan hopes readers take away from reading his book: that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime.

“I wanted to identify to the American people that illegal immigration is not a victimless crime. Here’s why you should care. Here’s what’s wrong, and here’s how we fix it,” the longtime immigration officer said. “It’s not hard to fix.”

Homan noted that, even for illegal aliens who enter the country and do not commit any violent crimes, many of them have to pay a cartel or smuggling organization to transport them to the U.S. border — essentially bankrolling violent organizations.

He added that 31% of women are raped on their journey to the U.S.-Mexico border and that Border Patrol agents rescued more than 4,000 individuals in 2019 who would have otherwise perished in the desert or drowned in the Rio Grande. Allowing illegal immigration to continue will only fuel such dangerous conditions.

Homan certainly speaks from a perch of deep experience in law enforcement.

He served as a police officer in New York before joining what was then called the Immigration and Naturalization Service — the agency was changed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He also served as a Border Patrol agent and was later appointed by former President Barack Obama to be executive associate director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2013.

He then served as the acting director of ICE from January 2017 to June 2018, the first ICE chief under the Trump administration, before retiring from government.

The former ICE director, who works as a contributor for Fox News and frequents congressional hearings, said not everyone is going to enjoy his book.

“When you read this book, Nancy Pelosi is not going to like it, AOC is not going to like it. The people on the far left of the game are not going to like it,” he said.

Homan added: “I explain what [Border Patrol and ICE does], and most importantly what they don’t do. They never arrested anybody in church, they never arrested in the hospital. But the left wants to think that. It’s my intent to put the false narrative to bed.”

Going beyond the immigration debate in Washington, D.C., Homan noted the personal excerpts in the book and how it details what he’s witnessed in his more than 30 years in law enforcement.

“If they’ve seen what I’ve seen for 34 years, they’d understand why I’m emotional about this issue and they would understand why I take the position that I do,” he said. “They don’t understand what’s going on behind the scenes.”

“A lot of people say I’m a racist. I’m here to set the record straight,” he said. “My book talks about who Tom Homan is and how Tom Homan became the guy they see out there.”

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/former-ice-chiefs-new-book-illegal-immigration-not-victimless-crime-147551

The post Former ICE Chief’s New Book: Illegal Immigration Is Not A Victimless Crime first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

On February 28 a panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the Remain in Mexico policy. Groups of asylum-seeking migrants gathered at the southern border causing concern by the Border Patrol that they would try to storm the border. It was a legitimate concern because of past chaos at the border, including caravans from Central America. The Paso del Norte International Bridge in downtown El Paso was closed, as well as other crossings.

CBP spokesman Ralph DeSio addressed the growing tension and the fact that ports of entry are not equipped to handle large groups arriving all at the same time. After the ruling by the 9th Circuit Court, about 30 migrants enrolled in the Remain in Mexico program and waited with their attorneys, requesting to be admitted into the U.S. Fortunately the migrants remained orderly.

“The balance between facilitating the flow of legitimate trade and travel while upholding our national border security mission and the safety of the public and our personnel is delicate,” DeSio said in a statement. “Ports of entry are not designed or equipped to handle extremely large groups of travelers arriving all at the same time, and temporary closure of a [port of entry] is contemplated as an extreme option, as necessary for public safety and border security.”

The migrants were turned away and the Ninth Circuit Court panel agreed to stay its own order. The Remain in Mexico policy stays in place until the Wednesday deadline. If the Supreme Court rules against taking up the Trump administration’s appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court has ruled that the Remain in Mexico policy will be blocked in the border states within its jurisdiction – California and Arizona. That court does not have jurisdiction over New Mexico or Texas.

The Department of Defense is deploying 160 troops to two cities determined to be key spots should the Remain in Mexico policy end. Eighty active-duty troops will go to San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing and eighty active-duty troops will go to the Paso del Norte bridge in El Paso. The troops are equipped to provide military police support, as well as engineer, and aviation support. They are part of the DOD’s Crisis Response Force.

The 160 troops are part of the Defense Department’s Crisis Response Force, which the Pentagon has made available to CBP since Trump initially deployed soldiers to the border in November 2018 in anticipation of the arrival of a large caravan.

A CBP spokesman said the deployment to San Diego and El Paso would begin Saturday and last for two weeks. The agency has the option, based on current needs, to extend the deployment and even “lift and shift” to other border crossings, he said.

There is the consideration of the government’s efforts to contain the coronavirus at the border, too. COVID-19 screenings have been implemented at the border by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan told reporters on Thursday morning they are working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor and evaluate health risks along the entire border to determine the best approach to contain the virus, known as COVID-19.

“If the health risk shifts and the CDC and the medical experts decide that there is an increased risk to the Southwest border, and CBP will be part of those discussions on what we need to do then to operationalize and reduce that risk,” he said.

Morgan says that more than 60,000 people have been referred to the CDC for additional screenings. Most screenings take place at airports, though, but CBP is following the same protocols on the northern and southern borders.

The perpetually outraged open-borders crowd is not happy with the additional deployment of troops to the border. Some are accusing the Trump administration of using concern over the spread of COVID-19 as a justification for the order.

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, a freshman Democrat from El Paso, said in a written statement that the Trump administration is using COVID-19 as “an excuse to sow fear about asylum seekers in an effort to continue to violate the law.”

“While it is no surprise, it is nonetheless deeply disappointing that the Trump administration would use the coronavirus as an excuse to sow fear about asylum seekers in an effort to continue to violate the law,” Escobar said. “It is because we are all concerned about the coronavirus that we need to focus our resources on our real challenges, like the limited number of tests available, something that troops on the border won’t address.”

Escobar’s complaint doesn’t hold water. The Trump administration, especially President Trump himself, has been very careful to not “sow fear” to anyone over COVID-19 while trying to get the message out about its potential spread, which is likely. Trump shut down flights from China early and assembled a team of public health professionals to tackle the problem. The storming of the border by migrants hoping to receive asylum and be released into the United States, as has happened in the past, cannot be allowed. Not only is it a national security risk, but it is also a public health risk. The open-borders crowd will never be happy until the southern border, in particular, no longer exists. They are not concerned with protecting the sovereignty of the United States. Fortunately, President Trump is and continues to do a good job on that front.

Source: https://hotair.com/archives/karen-townsend/2020/03/08/dept-defense-orders-crisis-response-force-southern-border/

The post Dept Of Defense Orders Crisis Response Force To Southern Border first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Agents encountered 1,036 people, primarily from Central America, near El Paso, Texas, early Wednesday morning. The arrest marks the largest group of unauthorized immigrants that Border Patrol has ever taken into custody at once.

The group included 63 children traveling without a parent or guardian. Another 39 people were single adults, and the remaining 934 claimed to be traveling with a family member, according to a report. Guatemalan citizens made up just over half the detainees. The rest are primarily from other Central American countries, including Honduras and El Salvador.

It’s not clear if the group came from Northern Triangle countries as part of a caravan, though it’s not likely, given no news of a convoy traveling through Mexico. Border Patrol has said human smugglers often oversee the movement of migrants at the border and use the groups to distract federal law enforcement while they move narcotics or people hoping to avoid arrest over unmanned parts of the border. Smugglers charge migrants an average of $5,000 to $8,000 each to get to the United States.

Border Patrol said in late March its agents on the southern border had since October apprehended 100 groups that contained 100 or more people. In its 2017 fiscal year, CBP documented two groups of 100 people or more. That jumped to 13 groups in 2018.

Until Wednesday, the biggest group of people to arrive at once consisted of more than 430 individuals. That apprehension took place Monday in the same region of the southern border. Memorial Day marked the busiest day in history for Border Patrol’s El Paso region as 2,200 people were taken into custody.

President Trump told reporters at the White House earlier Thursday to expect a major statement about the border in the next day or two. Wednesday’s apprehension has not been publicly shared by Customs and Border Protection or its parent, the Department of Homeland Security.

Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump

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The group has been described by Mexico’s Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero as “caravana madre,” which has been widely referred to as the “mother of all caravans” in American media.

Around 90 people embarked from El Salvador the last week of March then crossed into Guatemala and then into Mexico. By March 29, Sanchez said the group was expected to exceed 20,000 members. Although the caravan is roughly half that size currently, it has been reported as one of the most diverse groups because in addition to Central Americans, it is made up of people from Cuba, Haiti, and Africa.

The Human Rights Commission said it is working with the federal government in advance of the caravan’s arrival to ensure migrants have food, shelter, and any access to other services they may require. Beds, covers, bathrooms, and other items have been brought in for the group, according to Diario de Mexico.

The migrants are expected to be housed in the Magdalena, a sports stadium that was used in the 1968 Olympics.

Cordero said in late March the group would be blocked by federal forces when they arrived at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, which is 250 miles southeast of Mexico City and 100 miles northeast of the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Mexican officials said they have deported thousands of people this month, but 10,000 have made it past federal officers and intend on traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Caravans making their way from Central America to the U.S. began grabbing national media attention last spring when a group of a few thousand people prompted executive action from President Trump. Trump responded by deploying the National Guard to the four southern border states to free up Border Patrol agents from administrative and non-law enforcement jobs.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced all asylum-seekers who apply at a port of entry must remain in Mexico while their cases are decided. That process can take two to five years.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/mother-of-all-caravans-heads-north-10k-migrants-due-in-mexico-city-any-day

The post ‘Mother of all caravans’ heads north: 10K migrants due in Mexico City any day first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is “100 percent” prepared to shut down the U.S. border with Mexico to block an influx of migrants.

“If we don’t make a deal with Congress, the border’s going to be closed,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “100 percent.”

At almost the same time, less than two miles down Pennsylvania Avenue, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that might be a financial disaster for Americans.

“Closing down the border would have potentially catastrophic economic impact on our country, and I would hope we would not be doing that sort of thing,” McConnell said, noting that he agrees with the president that there is “a border crisis.”

The disagreement between the top two Republicans in Washington illustrates again the ongoing tension between the president and his own party in Congress as lawmakers try to bat down Trump proposals they believe are ill-advised politically, on policy grounds or both.

McConnell also said Tuesday that he and Trump now see eye to eye on waiting until after the 2020 election to work on health care legislation following Trump’s promise to move earlier. McConnell had balked at that idea. And last week, Trump quickly retreated on two of his own budget proposals — cuts for the Special Olympics and Great Lakes restoration — after hearing criticism from GOP members of Congress.

But it remains to be seen whether he will back off on the border, a signature issue for him that he views as critically important both as a policy matter and in terms of fulfilling a key promise from his 2016 campaign. Increasingly, Trump has shown a willingness to go it alone when Congress rejects his immigration and border-control plans.

On Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen directed Customs and Border Protection to send up to 750 additional officers to the border to assist with a policy designed to keep asylum-seekers in Mexico while they await adjudication of their cases. NBC News first reported on that decision last week. The number could be increased to 2,000, according to the department.

Earlier this year, Trump shut down parts of the federal government for five weeks over a demand that Congress provide $5.7 billion to fund new barriers along the border. After he reopened the agencies, he and Congress agreed to a border package that included money for technology upgrades and about 55 miles of new fencing but prohibited the construction of a solid wall.

Trump then announced he would unilaterally transfer previously appropriated money from the Pentagon’s accounts for building military bases and other areas of the government to build more wall without congressional approval — a move that immediately drew lawsuits from state attorneys general who argue he acted outside his constitutional authority as president.

Trump said Tuesday that he now wants Democrats in Congress to accede to his long-held goals of rewriting the visa lottery system and rules that give favor to family members of people who already have immigrated to the United States.

“Congress has to meet quickly and make a deal,” he said.

Though experts have sounded a similar note to McConnell, warning that shutting the border could hurt the U.S. economy — goods worth more than $1.5 billion cross the border on a daily basis — Trump said that’s a secondary concern for him.

“Security is more important to me than trade,” he said.

Trump also addressed his recent decision to cut off aid to three Central American countries — Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — from which many of the migrants have traveled to the U.S. border.

Critics say that decision will likely create more, not fewer, refugees from those countries.

Trump framed it as a natural response to what he views as the failure of the recipients of U.S. aid to give reciprocal value.

“They don’t do anything for us,” he said, and have been “taking advantage of the United States” for many years. “They arrange these caravans, and they don’t put their best people in those caravans … We’re not going to have it anymore.”

Source:

The post Trump, McConnell clash on closing the border first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Despite 12 Republican defections in Thursday’s vote to overturn his declaration of a national emergency, the president is standing firm on his promise to build a wall and secure the border.

The post Trump was right to veto resolution blocking his national emergency declaration first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“Today I am vetoing this resolution,” Trump, surrounded by law enforcement officials and families of those killed by illegal immigrants, said in the Oval Office. “Congress has the freedom to pass this resolution and I have the duty to veto it.”

SENATE VOTES TO BLOCK TRUMP’S BORDER EMERGENCY DECLARATION, IN BIPARTISAN REBUKE TEEING UP VETO

Trump’s veto came a day after 12 Senate Republicans joined Democrats in voting for the resolution, despite last-minute efforts between the White House and GOP lawmakers to keep the Republican Party united. The measure ultimately passed 59-41, and Trump immediately vowed to veto.

While the original passage marked a stinging rebuke from members of Trump’s own party, his veto is likely the last word as lawmakers are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority required to override.

On Friday, Trump called the resolution “dangerous” and said it would have revoked border operations put into place by the declaration. He also thanked Republicans who voted against the resolution.

“I have to in particular thank Republicans, strong Republican senators that were on our side and on the side of border security,” he said. He later added that the vote for the resolution was “a vote against reality.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that the veto was a sign that Trump “had chosen to trample all over the Constitution.”

“It is no surprise that the president holds the rule of law and our Constitution in minimal regard. There is no emergency; Congress has refused to fund his wall multiple times; Mexico won’t pay for it; and a bipartisan majority in both chambers just voted to terminate his fake emergency,” Schumer said in a statement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that the House will vote to override the veto on March 26.

“House Republicans will have to choose between their partisan hypocrisy and their sacred oath to support and defend the Constitution,” she said in a statement.

Trump originally declared a national emergency on the border last month after Congress granted only a fraction of the $5.7 billion he requested for a wall on the border. Declaring a national emergency allows Trump to steer an extra $3.6 billion to the wall.

Senate Democrats, who have consistently opposed many of Trump’s hardline immigration policies, were joined by Republicans who expressed support for Trump’s calls to build a wall — but cited concern about the expansion of presidential power. The resolution had previously passed the Democrat-controlled House.

SENATE VOTES TO END US SUPPORT FOR SAUDI FORCES IN YEMEN

“This is a constitutional question, it’s a question of the balance of power that is core to our constitution,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told reporters. “This is not about the president or border security, in fact I support border security, I support a barrier.”

The other Republicans who voted to oppose the declaration were Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Susan Collins, R-Maine; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Rand Paul, R-Ky.; Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.; Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Jerry Moran, R-Kan.; and Pat Toomey, R-Pa.

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Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., had said he would oppose the declaration but reversed course on the Senate floor, saying that he was “sympathetic” to Trump’s push to deal with the crisis at the border.

Lee, meanwhile, had introduced a bill that would end future emergency declarations after 30 days, in an effort to allow Republicans to vote against the resolution. But after Trump said he opposed that legislation, Lee eventually backed the measure to rebuff Trump.

Fox News’ Kelly Phares and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-wields-first-presidential-veto-to-nix-border-emergency-rebuff

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Families rest in the Huixtla town plaza Sunday after their 41 kilometer trek north from Tapachula, in southern Mexico [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera]

Tapachula, Mexico – The church bells were chiming at 3am, but Juan Alberto Orellana was already awake. He and other Central American migrants and refugees were preparing to head north on Sunday from Tapachula, in southern Mexico.

The central plaza was abuzz with activity as people got up from their pieces of cardboard, blankets, and patches of dirt and concrete. For the hundreds of people who slept in the plaza and others arriving from other neighbourhoods, getting ready did not take long.

Like most people, everything Orellana brought with him from Honduras fitted into a small backpack. He left home on January 19, fleeing poverty. Work in the banana plantations around his Honduran hometown of Olanchito did not pay enough to get by, he said.

“People cannot live in Honduras,” Orellana told Al Jazeera in the plaza on Sunday, as he waited to begin the collective trek north.

“The cost of living is really high,” he said, adding that the high rate of violent crime was also a factor in his decision to leave Honduras.

Orellana joined the roughly 2,000 migrants and refugees leaving Tapachula on foot. Many hoped to make it to the US, while others planed to remain in Mexico, but the destination on Sunday was Huixtla, a town 41km up the highway in the state of Chiapas.

Tens of thousands of Central Americans have fled over the past four months in a series of highly visible large groups called caravans. The overwhelming majority are from Honduras, followed by El Salvador and Guatemala.

The group that set out on Sunday from Tapachula was part of the latest wave of the ongoing exodus. A caravan left Honduras on January 15, and other groups, families and individuals have been streaming up to the Tecun Uman border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico ever since.

Humanitarian visas

During the second half of January, migrants and refugees benefitted from a temporary special policy established by the Mexican government, under a new administration that took power on December 1. The government has been issuing renewable one-year humanitarian visas that permit people to live, work and travel throughout Mexico.

Between January 15 and 29, Mexican officials processed 15,552 humanitarian visa requests at the border. The National Immigration Institute announced on Sunday it had issued 11,255 visas, having fully processed 72 percent of the applications.

Most of the 2,000 Central Americans who departed from Tapachula on Sunday had obtained humanitarian visas. For many of them, travelling with a caravan was not a choice; they could not afford transportation.

Migrants and refugees spread out for kilometers along the highway a few hours into the walk, taking breaks in the shade of mango trees. Eventually, Kenia Marisol Alvarado and many others got rides to Huixtla from passing trucks.

Alvarado left home in a remote rural area of the Santa Barbara department of Honduras more than two weeks ago with her husband and their eight-year-old son. She and her husband both worked as agricultural day labourers when they could, but the work was sporadic and only paid six dollars a day.

Kenia Marisol Alvarado, her husband and son, and another family walk into Huixtla after a truck driver dropped them off at the highway turn-off [Sandra Cuffe/Al Jazeera]

“We came to work and also to be able to pay school costs for our kids. The situation [in Honduras] is extreme. There is no work,” Alvarado told Al Jazeera.

Alvarado’s family and another family with young children were dropped off at the highway turn-off to Huixtla by a passing pickup truck driver. Alvarado’s son was in good spirits. “That’s an A!” he exclaimed excitedly, pointing at the last letter in the town name, spelled out in large rainbow letters at the side of the street into town.

The family does not have to worry about immigration checkpoints because they have humanitarian visas. But not everyone in the caravan has them. The Mexican government ended its temporary special policy without warning after two weeks, suddenly announcing January 29 that it would accept no new applicants.

We came to work and also to be able to pay school costs for our kids. The situation [in Honduras] is extreme. There is no work.
KENIA MARISOL ALVARADO, CENTRAL AMERICAN CARAVAN PARTICIPANT

Central Americans were still streaming to the Tecun Uman border crossing and many are still stuck in limbo, while others have crossed into Mexico without processing. Further north, another caravan is travelling up through Mexico without humanitarian visas.

When waves of Hondurans and Salvadorans began arriving at the border between Guatemala and Mexico in mid-January, there was initially an immense amount of mistrust regarding the Mexican government’s promises of visas.

Like many Central Americans who have been issued humanitarian visas, Alvarado and her family are planning on staying in Mexico. But they have no savings and had never left Honduras before, so they are travelling up into Mexico with the caravan until they can get their bearings and figure out the best place to look for work to support themselves and the other two children, aged three and six, they left with relatives back in Honduras.

“We came to work and also to be able to pay school costs for our kids. The situation [in Honduras] is extreme. There is no work,” Alvarado told Al Jazeera.

Alvarado’s family and another family with young children were dropped off at the highway turn-off to Huixtla by a passing pickup truck driver. Alvarado’s son was in good spirits. “That’s an A!” he exclaimed excitedly, pointing at the last letter in the town name, spelled out in large rainbow letters at the side of the street into town.

The family does not have to worry about immigration checkpoints because they have humanitarian visas. But not everyone in the caravan has them. The Mexican government ended its temporary special policy without warning after two weeks, suddenly announcing January 29 that it would accept no new applicants.

Central Americans were still streaming to the Tecun Uman border crossing and many are still stuck in limbo, while others have crossed into Mexico without processing. Further north, another caravan is travelling up through Mexico without humanitarian visas.

When waves of Hondurans and Salvadorans began arriving at the border between Guatemala and Mexico in mid-January, there was initially an immense amount of mistrust regarding the Mexican government’s promises of visas.

For years, Mexico has been deporting more Central Americans than the US. Past experiences and policies led many Central Americans to believe the visa request process was a ruse to deport them, and hundreds of people avoided the process and crossed into Mexico. By the time the group arrived in Mexico City last week, they numbered more than 2,500.

Mexican immigration officials set up in the capital city stadium serving as a migrant and refugee shelter and once again offered humanitarian visas to only those part of the group. As of Sunday, 661 people had taken them up on the offer and 590 had already been issued visas at the stadium, according to the National Immigration Institute.

‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

Some 1,400 people from the advance caravan had already arrived Sunday in El Saltillo, Coahuila, in northern Mexico. Instead of following in the footsteps of every caravan last year and heading to Tijuana, they will go to a Mexican city bordering Texas, either by Eagle Pass or Laredo, according to Agencia Reforma, a Mexican newswire.

The migrant and refugee caravan that departed Sunday from Tapachula has tentative plans to go to Tijuana, but news of violence, deteriorating shelter conditions, lack of employment opportunities and long wait lists to seek asylum in Tijuana has travelled south. Several people travelling with the group, as well as others leaving independently told Al Jazeera they will head to other border areas instead.

Tijuana is now the site of the controversial Remain in Mexico policy, under which the US returns asylum seekers to Mexico to await court dates and the outcome of their cases. Implementation of the policy, now dubbed the Migration Protection Protocols, began last week and is currently only in effect at the San Ysidro port of entry between Tijuana and San Diego.

The policy has come under fire from immigrant rights and support groups. Homicides in Tijuana homicide rate hit an all-time high last month, and the regulations could also push migrants and refugees to travel to other border areas along routes controlled by criminal and paramilitary groups.

On Friday, Mexico detained and deported Nora Phillips, the legal director of Al Otro Lado, an immigrant rights group that works closely with and litigates on behalf of Central American migrants and refugees in Tijuana. Her passport was flagged for unconfirmed reasons, as was that of the group’s policy director Erika Pinheiro, who was denied entry to Mexico last month.

US President Donald Trump continues to focus on the border. Claiming the advancing caravans are a threat to security, he persists in his demand for border wall funding. If not met, he could once again shut down the federal government this month. He has also threatened to declare a national emergency to build the wall – a move that would likely be met with legal challenges.

“With Caravans marching through Mexico and toward our Country, Republicans must be prepared to do whatever is necessary for STRONG Border Security. Dems do nothing. If there is no Wall, there is no Security,” Trump tweeted on Sunday.

‘To avoid gangs, you had to leave’

Danilo Rivera wants to make it up to the border, but he does not plan to cross into the US. More than anything else, he just wants to see his kids again.

Rivera first left San Pedro Sula, Honduras in 2001, when he was 21 years old. Fleeing street gangs establishing themselves in the country, he made it to Los Angeles, where he lived for 15 years.

“The only way to stay out [of the gangs] was to leave my country,” Rivera told Al Jazeera in the Huixtla town plaza, where other migrants and refugees were arriving and seeking out shaded areas to rest.

In 2016, Rivera’s wife was expecting their second child. Rivera returned to Honduras to apply at the US Embassy for residency as the spouse of a US citizen. But he had been unable to cover the lengthy and costly process of applying for a pardon for a drug possession charge years earlier, and his application was rejected.

Rivera has been trying to make it back to his kids ever since. He made his way up through Mexico three times over the past three years, successfully evading Mexican immigration officials. But he was apprehended in the US and deported every time.

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President Trump on Dec. 14 tweeted that White House budget director Mick Mulvaney would become acting chief of staff. Photo by Monica Akhtar — The Washington Post

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