Currents News Staff
It is a river of people that heads in only one direction: north. The lucky ride on top of cars or on the sides of them. But most of the people walk in the grueling heat, many carrying children or pushing them.
Mexican police tried to stop the caravan of migrants at the border with Guatemala but were unable to prevent them from crossing the river into Mexico.
That’s where we first saw eight-year-old Jorge as he struggled to make the swim across. A day later we find him walking alone. He tells us in a weak voice that he is hoping to cross the border into the U.S. but after more than 7 days on the road, he is very tired. Jorge later reunited with an older brother who okayed our interview.
After the caravan entered Mexico, federal police set up a road block with over 100 officers and told news crews they were going to force the migrants to get on buses that would take them to government shelters. There were too many people – more than 7,000 caravan organizers say, so police had to let them through, at least for now.
The Trump administration is threatening to pull aid from countries that fail to prevent migrants from entering the U.S. illegally. But caravan organizers say they won’t be bullied.
“We are going forward there is no going back. We are fighting, we will make the governments of Mexico and the United States understand why we are coming,” said Dennis Omar Contreras, a caravan organizer.
It won’t be easy. Single mother Blanca Lidia crossed the river into Mexico with her three children. The journey north was exhausting but they would persevere she said. “I have faith that we will arrive,” said Lidia.
They will need all their faith and more for the hundreds of miles that lay ahead of them.