Separate caravans in Mexico heading to U.S. stop to regroup

Thousands of Central American migrants in a caravan travelling through Mexico planned to rest at least a day or longer in the southern city of Juchitanin Oaxaca state beginning Wednesday, hoping to organize mass transport northward after days of hard walking in tropical temperatures that have left them about 1,448 kilometresfrom the nearest U.S. border crossing.

A second group consisting ofof 1,000 or so migrants who forced their way across the river from Guatemala was trailing some 400 kilometresback of the group that has prompted so much political noise in the U.S., stopping for the night in the city of Tapachula.

At a Tuesday evening assembly, participants in the bigger group named a committee to negotiate with Mexican authorities over a possible "bridge plan" that could leapfrog them to the Mexico's capital by bus. There was no indication from officials whether the request to transport the perhaps 4,000 people remaining in the group would be granted.

SusanOrmistonreports fromJuchitan, Mexico, describing the people she's encountered inthe initial caravan, and the reasons they're giving for fleeing their countries:

Who is travelling with the caravans?

6 years ago

Duration 2:09

Susan Ormiston describes the people she's encountered in the caravan in Southern Mexico.

Starting out in Honduras more than two weeks ago, the caravan migrants have spent their nights camping out in the main squares of small cities in the southern states of Chiapas and now Oaxaca. But a deadly earthquake last year destroyed Juchitan's central market, prompting it to be provisionally moved to the main square meaning there was no room for the migrants.

Instead they spent the night on a municipal-owned lot on the outskirts of town where a high ceiling sheltered a cement floor. Outside the structure many bedded down on blankets or cardboard sheets in the grass, with some lashing tarps to the foliage for rudimentary shelter.

Full tanks of water were set up for people to be able to bathe, and a large video screen showed soccer programming and then cartoons for the kids.

The two caravans combined represent just a few days' worth of the average flow of migrants to the United States.

Target of Trump's tirades

Similar caravans have occurred regularly over the years, passing largely unnoticed, but this year, they have become a hot-button political issue amid an unprecedented pushback from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Last week, he tweeted that "manygang members and some very bad people" are part of the caravans. In an interview last Tuesday, he said there were peoplefrom the Middle East mixed in, too. But when pressed forevidence, he conceded, "There is no proof of anything. But there could very well be."

On Monday of this week, Trumpsaid he wants build tent cities to house asylum seekers once they cross into the U.S. He has also floated the possibility of ending the constitutional right to U.S. citizenship for babies born in the country tonon-citizens, although some have questioned whether he could unilaterally change the rules or get Congress to do so.

With just a week before U.S. midterm elections, the Pentagon announced it will deploy 5,200 troops to the southwest border in an extraordinary military operation. The troops will be limited in what they can do under a federal law that restricts the military from engaging in law enforcement on American soil.

That means the troops will not be allowed to detain immigrants, seize drugs from smugglers or have any direct involvement in stopping a migrant caravan. They will instead be providing helicopter support to the 2,000 National Guard troops already deployed for border missions, installing concrete barriers and repairing and maintaining vehicles.

The new troops will include military police, combat engineers and helicopter companies equipped with advanced technology to help detect people at night.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, Customs and Border Protection commissioner from 2014 to 2017, said the military cannot stop asylum seekers who show up at border crossings to seek protection, and that border patrol agents have had no trouble apprehending people who cross illegally.

"I see it as a political stunt and a waste of military resources and waste of tax dollars," said Kerlikowske, who was at the helm during a major surge of Central Americans migrants in 2014.

"To use active-duty military and put them in that role, I think is a huge mistake. I see it as nothing more than pandering to the midterm elections by the president."