It’s been more than a month since thousands of people from Central America fled to escape their violent countries in order to try and seek asylum in the United States. While many of them did not continue the journey to the U.S.-Mexican border, some are being processed at the border.
After having traveled 2,500 miles, around 150 people are seeking asylum in the U.S.
The US Government is not allowing asylum seekers from the #RefugeeCaravan in, claiming the port of entry is at capacity. Sad that a police force that can round up & detain thousands of immigrants a day isn’t willing to process 200 refugees.@latinorebels @ACLU @wrcommission pic.twitter.com/QLTb08D3Gz
— Alex Mensing (@alex_mensing) April 30, 2018
On April 29, the group arrived at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. While the group split up, roughly 50 people are waiting to see if immigration officials can process them under asylum protect. BuzzFeed News reports that half of 50 seeking asylum are children.
Advocates of the caravan also greeted the group at the border.
CREDIT: Pueblo Sin Fronteras / Facebook
“We hope the United States will take them in,” Irineo Mujica, the director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, told The Washington Post. “If not, we’ve already waited through a month of torture with Donald Trump. I think we can wait a couple more.”
But authorities warned advocates and migrants that they should not believe false advice.
“To anyone that is associated with this caravan, think before you act,” Rodney S. Scott, chief patrol agent in San Diego for the U.S. Border Patrol, said in a statement provided by The Washington Post. “If anyone has encouraged you to illegally enter the United States, or make any false statements to U.S. government officials, they are giving you bad advice and they are placing you and your family at risk.”
About 50 people ended up sleeping overnight waiting to hear if immigration officials would process them.
Immigrant rights advocates at the border say migrants seeking asylum are commonly told there is no room to process them by Customs and Border Protection and they have to wait. This is what it looked like inside the port of entry last night. pic.twitter.com/PsbmscAPIb
— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 30, 2018
People have been waiting for two days now, but those that ended up sleeping at the border said they would keep on waiting.
Despite Customs and Border Protection officials saying they’re at full capacity, migrants will continue to wait.
CREDIT: Pueblo Sin Fronteras / Facebook
“The families have been in the plaza for 18 hours already, since Sunday at 4 p.m., and have asked for our support in pressuring CBP to begin processing immediately,” Pueblo Sin Fronteras said on Facebook. The organization has been accompanying the migrants through their journey from the beginning. “CBP is the largest law enforcement agency in the country, and is able to detain, transport and incarcerate thousands of people in a day, but is pretending that they don’t have the ‘capacity’ to accept 150 refugee parents and children whose arrival has been anticipated and communicated weeks in advance.”
This story is developing. Check back with mitú for updates on the story.
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