It’s being reported tonight that Mexico says they plan to disband this caravan of migrants headed for the US border, and it has nothing to do with Trump’s complaints:
Mexican immigration authorities said they plan on disbanding the Central American caravan by Wednesday in Oaxaca. The most vulnerable will get humanitarian visas.
— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018
Everyone else in the caravan, which has traveled through Mexico for days from Chiapas, will have to petition the Mexican government for permission to stay in the country or will have to leave.
— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018
JO Rodríguez, a federal delegate with INM, told me this was not in response to Trump speaking out against the caravan. “Mexico is acting without pressure to find a solution to this problem.”
— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018
Despite this, the caravan organizer says she still intends on bringing some of these people to the US to request asylum:
Gina Garibo, an organizer with Pueblos Sin Fronteras, said the caravan was not over. They will continue to travel towards the US with asylum seekers.
— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018
“We will continue,” Garibo said. “We have to follow through with our promise.”
“At the end of the day these people have the right to ask for asylum,” Garibo said.
— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018
Another organizer told Buzzfeed news that the Mexican authorities aren’t actually disbanding the group:
Another organizer, Alex Mensing, called the Mexican action a victory for the caravan, saying organizers had successfully persuaded the Mexican government to allow the caravan to travel to the US border to seek asylum.
“Don’t be fooled, the government isn’t ‘disbanding’ it, it’s conceding its participants’ right to apply for asylum without traveling in the shadows,” he said.
I guess we’ll see what happens…