Migrants in Mexico City stadium give thoughts on US midterm elections
958 views · Published 12 November 2018 · 1:28 · Indexed 21 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(6 Nov 2018) : For some Central American migrants who have been on the road for a couple of weeks now, fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries, the little news they hear about the US midterm elections appears confusing to some, and somewhat scary to others. US President Donald Trump has seized on the migrant caravan and portrayed it as a major threat, though such groups have sprung up regularly over the years and largely passed unnoticed. He ordered thousands of troops to the US-Mexico border, vowed to detain asylum seekers in tents cities and insinuated without proof that there are criminals or even terrorists in the group. He has also tried to rouse voters with assertions that the migrants are looking for handouts like free health care and education in the US. In Mexico, humanitarian aid converged around a stadium in the capital where more than 4,000 Central American migrants winding their way toward the United States were resting on Tuesday after an arduous trek that has taken them through three countries in the course of three weeks. Migrants searched through piles of donated clothes, grabbed boxes of milk for children and lined up to make quick calls home at a stand set up by the Red Cross as US voters went to the polls for midterm elections. Speaking to The Associated Press at the stadium in Mexico City, Honduran migrant Miguel Angel Murillo worried that if Trump were to win, he would be able to decide their fate. And yet, many in the latest group said they remain convinced that traveling together is their best hope for reaching the US. Organisers are urging members of the caravan already in Mexico City to await the arrival of stragglers and perhaps even the other caravans making their way through Mexico. The idea is to find strength in numbers. The outpouring of support for the caravan that first set out from Honduras on Oct. 13 has inspired thousands of others to march north from Central America. Mexico City is more than 600 miles (1,000 kilometres) from the nearest US border crossing at McAllen, Texas. A caravan last spring opted for a much longer route to Tijuana in the far northwest, across from San Diego. That caravan steadily dwindled to only about 200 people by the time it reached the border. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/d21c7112ac126ae42352ea8b7a6874c8
