Good morning. The #migrantcaravan has now been on the march for three weeks. Here’s a quick update from last night, when I spoke to several members after Trump warned he wanted soldiers to shoot them if the migrants threw rocks.
News of Trump’s comments had reached the caravan by Thursday night in Matias Romero Avendano, where the migrants were camped in a soggy sports field on the edge of town, a few miles from where Mexican families celebrated the Day of the Dead in the town cemetery.
“They won’t shoot because we’re not criminals,” said Erik Miranda, 39, of Trump’s threat that soldiers would open fire if attacked with rocks. “I lived there for 15 years. I know the United States is a country of laws.”
Miranda said he’d been deported from America twice despite asking for asylum after being shot three times by the 18th Street gang in his native Honduras. “If the caravan reaches the border and enters, these people with have their day in court in front of a judge,” he said.
Miranda said he would not try to enter the US again but instead was hoping to reach Mexico City, where he planned to request asylum.
“How horrible,” said Daniela Carbajal, 27, when told of Trump’s threat. “I’m not justifying throwing rocks but remember: we have children among us.”
As she spoke, her nine year old son Oscar watched a video advising migrants of their rights on a portable movie screen, his head poking out of an orange tent Carbajal and her husband had just bought for 150 pesos. Inside, her 3-year-old daughter, Karla, was sound asleep.
“We are defenseless,” she said. “It’s incredible that the president of the United States would act that way.”
Carbajal said she had been a seafood chef and restaurant owner in Tegucigalpa until gangs began extorting her for “war tax.” Despite Trump’s proposal to put asylum-seekers in tent cities for months — even years— until their cases are decided, Carbajal was undeterred.
“We didn’t want to leave our country. We had to,” she said, mentioning off-hand that her mother and father had both been killed within a month of one another a few years ago. “We can’t go back. We can’t.”
The conditions in the camp were worse than the night before, with migrants scattered and many pan-handling on the road. Mexicans pulled over to offer bread, water & clothes for children, who seemed to be everywhere. Several fires sent up dirty smoke, deepening the darkness.
Activists accompanying the group said there were now currently 5,400 people in the caravan, but did not yet have an idea of how many were women or children to counter Trump’s claim that the caravan is mostly single men.
This was all before a powerful thunderstorm swept through the area, sending migrants scrambling for cover. Some ended up in the middle of the road, in the rain, trying to hitch rides onwards.
