Two groups of Central American migrants delivered a list of demands to the US Consulate in Tijuana in Tuesday, with one group demanding to be let into the United States, or be paid $50,000 each to go home, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.
The first group demanding action, numbering about 100, arrived at the U.S. Consulate at about 11 am Tuesday. The migrants said they were asking that the Trump Administration pay them $50,000 each or allow them into the U.S.
When asked how the group came up with the $50,000 figure, organizer Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa of Honduras, said they chose that number as a group. –SD Union Tribune
“It may seem like a lot of money to you,” said Ulloa. “But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras,” referencing American intervention in Central America.
The group gave the US Consulate 72 hours to respond, however they have not decided on a course of action if their demands are not met.
“I don’t know, we will decide as a group,” Ulloa said, defiantly.
The second caravan group of around 50 migrants delivered a letter to the Consulate around 1:20 p.m., and asked for the US to speed up the asylum process to 300 asylum seekers per day at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. The border crossing currently processes between 40 and 100 asylum seekers per day – a pace which pro-migrant groups have said is too slow and violates American and international laws which call for an immediate process.
“In the meantime, families, women and children who have fled our countries continue to suffer and the civil society of Tijuana continue to be forces to confront this humanitarian crisis, a refugee crisis caused in great part by decades of U.S. intervention in Central America,” reads the letter.
15 or so of the migrants who delivered the second letter had participated in an unsuccessful hunger strike several weeks ago.
Representatives from the second group met with Mexican immigration officials in Tijuana. The migrants asked Mexican officials to stop working with the municipal police in deporting caravan members.
Migrants thought the number of deportations and voluntary repatriations is a reflection of their precarious situation in Tijuana.
“A lot of people are leaving because there is no solution here,” said Douglas Matute, 38, of Tijuana. “We thought they would let us in. But Trump sent the military instead of social workers.” –SD Union Tribune
Caravan member Xochtil Castillo told the Tribune that she has not been given a time frame for when the US will respond.
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