INVASION: Migrant Caravan Crosses Mexico’s Southern Border

Nation’s police hold at bay in a standoff the group fleeing violence-prone Central America for the U.S.

A caravan of several thousand Honduran migrants on their way to the U.S. breached Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala on Friday, but were held at bay by hundreds of Mexican police in a tense standoff, deepening a regional migration crisis.

The rush at the border came after Mexican officials said they would grant asylum to the caravan of about 3,000 migrants fleeing violence-prone Central America. But the Mexicans said they would let in only 100 to 200 migrants a day, because they couldn’t process asylum claims more quickly.

Despite the offer, the majority of Hondurans grew restive at the prospect of waiting for days or weeks following days of walking from their hometowns to Mexico. Hundreds of migrants, mostly young men, began pulling down a fence on the Guatemalan side of the border and soon overwhelmed the handful of Guatemalan police.

One of the migrants addressed the crowd from a house in this Guatemalan border town. “If they don’t let us cross now, we’ll cross by the river,” he said.

Migrants then rushed across the bridge that separates the two countries and tried to overwhelm some 500 federal police manning a thin fence. At one point, some in the crowd threw bottles and stones at the police, who responded with several volleys of what appeared to be tear gas. A helicopter roamed in the skies.

Some migrants carried babies in their arms, others pushed baby carriages, and nearly everyone carried their belongings in backpacks and handbags. Only a few women with children were allowed to enter Mexico.

After it became clear the Mexican police wouldn’t let the majority of the crowd through, dozens of young men began climbing the fence on the bridge and throwing themselves into the shallow river, tying several makeshift rafts together in an attempt to cross illegally to the Mexican side.

Mexico’s Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete claimed that caravan leaders “put pregnant women and children at the front of the group.” He said several Mexican police were injured as they contained crowds from crossing into Mexican territory.

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