Seeking Refuge -- Or Invading?

"Then in two weeks, another 3,000 will arrive. Hopefully that information will prove false, because we are worried that we will lose control."
"[One person was arrested, who] came to incite the protesters. We are expecting more protests [from residents of Tijuana], but we are prepared."
"That is one of the problems. They [federal government] are the ones that are giving us the problem because they couldn't control it [migrant caravans].
"The situation is very complicated. But we are coordinating it so that we don't lose control. I ask the community of Tijuana for common sense. This is not our fault. Our  obligation is to give security to our community and the people who are arriving."
Tijuana Police Chief Mario Martinez, Tijuana, Mexico

"Don't get it twisted -- this is an invasion."
"Once you cross the borders, once you went through those borders with violence, it became an invasion."
Guadalupe Arangure, local Tijuana resident, Mexico

CUstoms and Border Protection shuts down San Ysidro border crossing as caravan approaches  still from video

At first, from news reports, the impression was given that compassionate, good-hearted Mexicans did what they could to ease the travail of hundreds, then thousands of Central Americans determined to cross Mexico for their final destination -- entry to the United States. They were convinced, people who said they were fleeing their countries of origin in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua, out of economic necessity, and to escape violence, corruption, fear and privation. Mexico itself has similar problems of corruption, violence, drug trafficking, poverty.

Clearly enough these are nations failing to observe the most basic of civilized norms in safety and security and good public order along with dependable civic institutions, sound educational opportunities and employment for their citizens. Those citizens who are voting in an unusual manner, not at the ballot box but at the borders of their countries, crossing them to embark on arduous, long journeys that are dangerous and require sacrifice and confidence that their plight will move those who have no wish to welcome them. Insisting on entry to a wealthy country with its own problems of crime, violence, drug trafficking and corruption.

Mexicans, it would appear, have seen their patience evaporate in the face of an ongoing exodus from Central America of haven-seekers. Most of whom, offered the opportunity to remain in Mexico and make application for asylum there, have chosen to refuse. Their goal is to forge onward, since America the land of prosperity and opportunity is where they headed for and where they plan to end up. Their sacrifice in leaving their homes behind obviously imbuing them with a sense of entitlement to do just that.

Tijuana is hosting thousands of Central Americans, desperately attempting to provide shelter, food and medical aid for them. An estimated 6,000 migrants have made their way to that border city, with more on the way. As the initial caravans progressed and updates were made on how they were managing and where they happened to be, they inspired others to join them or to embark on their own journeys assembling caravans of their own. The more 'successful' they are seen to be the more others will feel encouraged to do the same.

Meanwhile, Tijuana has a problem, an imposed responsibility to look after the welfare of thousands of people passing through but meanwhile settling down temporarily as they have been doing awaiting their opportunity to cross the border which the United States refuses to permit. The new president-elect Obrador has made an agreement with the U.S. that Mexico will keep the migrants on their side of the border while the U.S. slowly studies each migrant's application to determine who may cross and who will be refused.

The municipal police in Tijuana have handled the situation and for their pains had rocks hurled at them by migrants a week ago. "Fortunately, there was also no injury", noted Chief Martinez. "We managed to control the situation". That makes quite the impression, doesn't it? Imposing upon the city in Mexico for all their existential needs for however long they will be there, and expressing gratitude for the attention given in a humanitarian situation by tossing rocks at the police whose job is to maintain order.

Migrants break past a line of police as they run toward the Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, near the San Ysidro entry point into the U.S. More than 5,000 migrants are camped in and around a sports complex in Tijuana after making their way through Mexico in recent weeks via caravan. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Police in that week arrested 57 of the intruders for such crimes as drug possession, public intoxication, and fighting. Tijuana secretary of public security Marco Antonio Sotomayor listed off 47 of the arrested from Honduras, five from El Salvador, four from Guatemala and one from Nicaragua; 42 of them to be deported, no longer able to remain legally in Mexico. A police officer overheard a number of migrants at the main camp claiming to be MS-13 gang members. U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials claim the presence of over 500 criminals among the migrants.

Dressed in riot gear, 200 Tijuana police officers were deployed to create a barrier between the migrant camp and some 400 local residents who set out to protest the presence of the migrants a week earlier. Local protesters claim to be sick of the migrants complaining about the food given them, and nor are they impressed by the violence the presence of the migrants has sparked in their city. The caravan broke through a fence on the Guatemalan-Mexican border a month ago to push north.

A group managed to climb the first barrier   AFP

And on Sunday a group of 500 of those migrants repeated the performance, storming the barriers near Tijuana to cross into the U.S. Mexico's interior ministry described the attempt as "violent" and "illegal", with video showing dozens of people rushing toward the fence separating the U.S. and Mexico, to be repelled by tear gas used by American border officers. Mexican police rounded up those involved as they "tried to cross the border in a violent way" which was "far from helping their objectives". Violating the legal migration framework could have resulted in a "serious incident", said the interior ministry, now prepared to deport all those involved.

U.S. military personnel and Border Patrol agents gather at the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday at the San Ysidro border crossing point south of San Diego. (Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images)