NATION/WORLD
Thursday, November 15, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Migrant caravan groups arrive by hundreds at U.S. border
By ELLIOT SPAGAT AND
MARIA VERZA
Associated Press
TIJUANA, Mexico —
Migrants in a caravan of
Central Americans arrived
in Tijuana by the hundreds
Wednesday, getting their
first glimpse of the robust
U.S. military presence that
awaits them after President
Donald Trump ordered thou-
sands of troops to the border.
Several hundred peo-
ple from the caravan got off
buses and made their way to
a shelter on the Mexican side
near the border to line up
for food. Doctors checked
those fighting colds and
other ailments while several
dozen migrants, mostly sin-
gle men, spent the night at a
Tijuana beach that is cut by
a towering border wall of
metal bars. Several Border
Patrol agents in San Diego
watched them through the
barrier separating the U.S.
and Mexico.
The first wave of migrants
in the caravan, which
became a central theme of
the recent U.S. election,
began arriving in Tijuana in
recent days, and their num-
bers have grown each day.
The bulk of the main car-
avan appeared to be about
1,100 miles from the border,
but has recently been mov-
ing hundreds of miles a day
by hitching rides on trucks
and buses.
Many of the new arriv-
als were waiting in Tijuana
for the caravan leaders to
arrive and provide guidance
on their immigration options
to the U.S., including seek-
ing asylum. Some said they
might cross illegally.
U.S. Defense Secretary
Jim Mattis, meanwhile, vis-
ited U.S. troops posted at the
AP Photo/Gregory Bull
Central American migrants and others look on along the border structure, in Tijuana, Mexico on Wednesday.
border in Texas and said the
deployment provides good
training for war, despite
criticism that the effort is
a waste of taxpayer money
and a political stunt. Most of
the troops are in Texas, more
than 1,500 miles from where
the caravan is arriving.
The first arrivals gener-
ally received a warm wel-
come from Tijuana, despite
the fact that its shelter sys-
tem to house migrants is at
capacity. The city’s secre-
tary of economic develop-
ment has said there are about
3,000 jobs for migrants who
want to stay in the city. Some
residents came down to
where the men were camped
on a beach and gave them
tacos to eat Wednesday.
The Central Americans
in the caravan are the latest
migrants to arrive in Tijuana
with the hope of cross-
ing into the United States.
Tijuana shelters in 2016
housed Haitians who came
by the thousands after mak-
ing their way from Brazil
with plans to get to the U.S.
Since then, several thousand
Haitians have remained in
Tijuana, finding work. Some
have married local resi-
dents and enrolled in local
universities.
“Mexico has been excel-
lent; we have no complaint
about Mexico. The United
States remains to be seen,”
said Josue Vargas, a migrant
from Honduras who finally
pulled into Tijuana on
Wednesday after more than
a month on the road.
Ilse Marilu, 24, arrived
in Tijuana late Tuesday
with her 3-year-old daugh-
ter, having joined the cara-
van with a large contingent
from San Pedro Sula, Hon-
duras. She walked several
miles Tuesday in a fruitless
search for space in a migrant
shelter before reaching the
beach plaza. A Mexican
couple dropped off a tent
that her daughter and three
other children used to sleep
in as an evening chill set in.
She planned to stay in
Tijuana until caravan lead-
ers arrived and offered help
on how to seek asylum in the
U.S.
“We are going to enter
through the front door,”
Marilu said, insisting she
would never try to enter the
country illegally.
A few people pitched
tents at the Tijuana beach
plaza while most, like Henry
Salinas, 30, of Honduras,
planned to sleep there in the
open.
He said that he intended
to wait for thousands more
in the caravan to arrive and
that he hoped to jump the
fence in a large group at the
same time, overwhelming
Border Patrol agents.
“It’s going to be all
against one, one against
all. All of Central America
against one, and one against
Central America. ... All
against Trump, and Trump
against all,” he said.
On Tuesday, a couple of
dozen migrants scaled the
steel border fence to cele-
brate their arrival, chanting
“Yes, we could!” One man
dropped over to the U.S.
side briefly as border agents
watched from a distance.
He ran quickly back to the
fence.
Tijuana’s head of migrant
services, Cesar Palencia
Chavez, said authorities
offered to take the migrants
to shelters immediately, but
they initially refused.
“They wanted to stay
together in a single shelter,”
Palencia Chavez said, “but
at this time that’s not pos-
sible” because shelters are
designed for smaller groups
and generally offer separate
facilities for men, women
and families.
But he said that after their
visit to the border, most were
taken to shelters in groups of
30 or 40.
On Wednesday, buses
and trucks carried some
migrants into the state of
Sinaloa along the Gulf of
California and farther north-
ward into the border state of
Sonora.
The Rev. Miguel Angel
Soto, director of the Casa
de Migrante in the Sinaloa
capital of Culiacan, said
about 2,000 migrants had
arrived in that area. He said
the state government, the
Roman Catholic Church and
city officials in Escuinapa,
Sinaloa, were helping the
migrants.
The priest said the church
had been able to get “good
people” to provide buses for
moving migrants northward.
He said 24 buses had left
Escuinapa on an eight-hour
drive to Navojoa in Sonora
state.
After midterms, Democratic hopefuls eye early-voting states
By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press
COLUMBIA, S.C. —
Democrats pondering 2020
presidential bids in the
aftermath of the midterm
elections are pivoting from
campaigning for other can-
didates across the country to
refocus on their own efforts,
including moves in ear-
ly-voting states like South
Carolina.
On Friday, former Massa-
chusetts Gov. Deval Patrick
is set to deliver a keynote
address at an Urban League
fundraiser in Charleston. It’s
the latest visit to the state
for Patrick, Massachusetts’
first black governor. He is
among the more than two
dozen Democrats whose
names are being mentioned
as potential White House
contenders.
Many of them, includ-
ing U.S. Sens. Cory Booker,
Kamala Harris and Jeff
Merkley, have already
begun to visit South Caro-
lina. Home to the first-in-
the-South primary, South
Carolina provides the first
real opportunity for poten-
tial White House contenders
to see how their messages
play to a significant popula-
tion of minority voters.
Ahead of the 2018 mid-
terms, former Vice Pres-
ident Joe Biden stumped
in the state with Demo-
cratic gubernatorial nomi-
nee James Smith. Indepen-
dent Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders spoke at a “Medi-
care for All” rally, orga-
nized by the South Carolina
arm of Our Revolution, an
offshoot of Sanders’ 2016
White House bid. Celebrity
lawyer Michael Avenatti
campaigned with Demo-
cratic congressional can-
didate Sean Carrigan, tell-
ing The Associated Press
he got a warm reception
from voters, who see him
“as a fighter, someone who
could potentially take down
Donald Trump.” Former
U.S. Attorney General Eric
Holder spoke at a Charles-
ton NAACP gathering.
Some potential can-
didates are making staff
moves in the early state, too.
On
Wednesday,
an
adviser to Los Angeles
Mayor Eric Garcetti con-
firmed to AP that South Car-
olina strategist Phil Cham-
bers had been hired by a
political action commit-
tee aligned with the mayor,
Democratic Victory Fund.
Chambers served as an
adviser on Smith’s guber-
natorial campaign, as well
as chief of staff to the South
Carolina Democratic Party.
Saloni Sharma, a former
staffer to Massachusetts Sen.
Elizabeth Warren, came to
South Carolina earlier this
year to take over commu-
nications for the state party.
Out-of-market games only. Selec
Other Warren staffers are
working with state parties
in other early-voting states,
including Nevada and New
Hampshire.
Booker and Garcetti
are expected to return to
South Carolina in the com-
ing weeks. Booker made
his initial visit in October,
speaking at a rally in the
Democratic stronghold of
Orangeburg and address-
ing voters in Charleston.
Garcetti has already hosted
a fundraiser for state Dem-
ocrats, bringing in $100,000
for the party.
t int’l games excluded.
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