Yesterday we saw one story of what it’s like these days once you’ve decided to make the journey north from Central America through Mexico to the U.S. in search of a better, safer life.
So what’s it like once you arrive at the border?
Well, here’s how things have gone overall in the last few months, as crowds of asylum seekers have bottlenecked at the Mexican side of the U.S.’s artificially metered ports of entry.
Here's what happened to the migrant caravan that arrived in Tijuana last year
Rafael Carranza and Daniel González
El Paso Times
Published 8:00 a.m. MT Feb. 11, 2019
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/2019/02/11/what-happened-last-years-migrant-caravan-tijuana/2831764002/
[There were] 6,000 migrants from Central America who flooded into Tijuana in November [2018] after traveling through Mexico in caravans, overwhelming local authorities, and drawing the wrath of President Donald Trump, who in response deployed several thousand activity-duty military troops to the southern border.
Three months later, most of the 6,000 migrants are gone. Nearly half chose to wait in line for a chance to ask for asylum at the San Ysidro port of entry [into San Diego], despite the long waits. Most have already seen a U.S. immigration officer.
The remaining migrants chose to stay in Mexico, return home, or travel to other areas of the border, where they either attempted to enter the U.S. illegally or asked for asylum at other ports of entry, according to initial estimates from the Mexican government. […]
With shelters at capacity, the [Tijuana] city government opened a makeshift shelter at a sports complex to house the waves of Central Americans who arrived weekly for nearly a month.
But as more migrants arrived, living conditions began to deteriorate, and small groups of asylum seekers started crossing the border illegally.