Migrant Caravan Is on the Move

Thousands of Central American migrants were back on the move toward the US border Saturday, after dedicated Mexico City metro trains whisked them to the outskirts of the capital and drivers began offering rides north, the AP reports. At the Line 2 terminus, migrants began making their way to a main highway to resume walking and hitchhiking with the tacit approval of Mexican officials. Near a major toll plaza about 19 miles north of the city, Mexico state police and human rights officials helped load men, women, and children onto eighteen-wheelers and asked passing buses and trucks if they would carry migrants. Maria Yesenia Perez, a 41-year-old who left La Ceiba, Honduras nearly a month ago with her 8-year-old daughter, said she was prepared to wait to gain entry at the US border.

"I decided to come (with the caravan) to help my family," she said, before she and her daughter were hoisted onto the back of a semitrailer. Perez is now one of roughly 4,000 migrants who plan to proceed to the city of Queretaro—a state capital 124 miles to the northwest—and then possibly to Guadalajara, Culiacan, Hermosillo, and eventually Tijuana on the US border. Whereas migrants like her carried tiny knapsacks with bare essentials in Mexico's tropical south, their belongings swelled noticeably after a multiday stop in Mexico City. Many are now hauling bundles of blankets, sleeping bags, and heavy clothing to protect against colder temperatures in the northern part of the country. (See how President Trump reacted to questions about the migrant caravan.)