• CARAVAN: Mexican National Guard troops and immigration officials stopped Thursday, a migrant caravan traveling from the Guatemalan border to the city of Tapachula in southern Mexico during an enforcement operation where ultimately 800 people were detained.
• ENFORCEMENT: “It is the right of every person to emigrate, why don’t they let us through? We just want to pass. Respect us, we are human beings”, shouted a member of the caravan mostly comprised of Honduran irregular migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach the US.
• ASYLUM: According to Mexican authorities, officers from Mexico’s refugee agency (COMAR) offered members of the caravan, access to asylum. However, the migrants rejected the offer, given that it would require them to spend time in a detention center.
• INTEGRITY: “The efforts by the Mexican National Guard and other officials have thus far been effective at maintaining the integrity of their border, despite outbreaks of violence and lawlessness”, said Chad Wolf, the US Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary, on Wednesday.
