At end of migrant caravan, families fear what lies next

TIJUANA, Mexico — After more than a month on the road, traversing 2,500 miles across Mexico, the migrants’ caravan came to an end on Sunday at an ocean-side park where the U.S.-Mexico border fence juts into sea.

Some 200 Central American migrants who remain in the caravan were expected to turn themselves in to U.S. authorities later on Sunday with the hope they will be given asylum.

But first, there were weddings.

Four couples tied the knot at a ceremony at Friendship Circle Park here, a place where families on opposite sides of the border are generally allowed to speak for a few hours on weekends, despite remaining on opposite sides of the fence. The nuptials underscored one of the migrants’ greatest fears now that they've reached the border: having their families torn apart once they turn themselves over to U.S. immigration authorities.

“We’re fighting so that people who already have kids together are recognized as a family,” said Emma Lozano, a pastor for Familia Latina Unida, an immigrants’ rights group based in Chicago, who performed the wedding ceremonies. The marriage certificate is “a legal document that shows they are a family, so that they don’t divide the family,”

In past years, migrant caravans have served as a way to call attention to the plight of migrants on a dangerous journey, but they often traveled in obscurity. This year, due to a series of tweets from President Trump, the caravan has been tracked closely since it left southern Mexico more than a month ago. Trump demanded that Mexico do more to stop migrants from reaching the United States, and used the caravan as justification for tighter border security.

As the group reached the border, U.S. officials have suggested that the migrants should stay in Mexico and warned them — and the activists helping them — from making false claims, saying that they will be prosecuted if they do.

“To anyone that is associated with this caravan, Think Before You Act,” Rodney S. Scott, chief agent in San Diego for the U.S. Border Patrol, said in a statement. “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.”

The caravan started out with more than 1,000 people but the numbers have dwindled as the group made its way north by foot, bus and train. Activists and immigration lawyers have helped organize the journey and given workshops on U.S. immigration law.

U.S. law generally allows foreigners to apply for asylum, although the vast majority of Central Americans who apply are not approved. Migrants who pass the initial “credible fear” screening often get assigned a date in immigration court and then are released after a few days in custody. U.S. officials say many migrants skip their court dates and try to live illegally in the United States.

The Martínez family had gathered by the beach in Tijuana early Sunday morning, knowing that they would be one of the many who would seek asylum at the San Ysidro border checkpoint.

“I hope that the immigration agents take into account that walking from Chiapas to here, and fleeing from our countries, is punishment enough," said Maria Magdalena Iraeta Martinez, 47, from El Salvador, whose son and daughter got married to their partners.

Five years ago, Martínez said, her family had been encircled in their home by armed members of the MS-13 gang. The gang members had attempted to recruit her son, William Rafael Caranza Martinez, now 25, but he had refused to join. Armed men entered the house early in the morning, escorted all of the extended family outside, and threw them to the ground at gunpoint, she said.

The family fled to Guatemala, and lived for several years in southern Mexico but continued to receive gang threats.

She joined the refugee caravan last year, pushing one of her daughters in a wheelchair, in order to reach Tijuana, while serving as a coordinator for all the women in the group. This year, she returned to the border to escort other relatives. Nine members of the family currently plan to turn themselves in at the border checkpoint, along with a couple of hundred other people from the refugee caravan.

“It’s been a nightmare that follows me day and night, and even though I wish it was over, it keeps coming back,” she said of the threats she received. “With the blessing of God and the Virgin Mary, I’m going to get asylum.”

Alexandra Bachan, a private immigration lawyer from Oakland, Calif., who volunteered to provide legal services training for the group, said that families were informed they could initially be split in detention: grandparents could be separated from their family members, men from the female members of their family, and, in some cases, parents from their children.

“The thing that has frightened people the most is being separated,” she said. “But our hope is that they’re more prepared.”

Partlow reported from Mexico City.

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