Zimpapers Logo

Hundreds of mostly Honduran migrants huddled overnight on a highway in eastern Guatemala in the early hours of yesterday after domestic security forces used sticks and tear gas to halt the passage of a US-bound caravan just days before US President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

As many as 8 000 migrants, including families with young children, have entered Guatemala since Friday, authorities say, fleeing poverty and lawlessness in a region rocked by the coronavirus pandemic and back-to-back hurricanes in November.

“There’s no food or water, and there are thousands of children, pregnant women, babies, and they don’t want to let us pass,” a Honduran who only gave the name Pedro told the Reuters news agency.

Guatemalan authorities said late on Sunday they have sent 1,568 migrants back home since Friday, the vast majority to Honduras. Nearly 100 were returned to El Salvador.

A Reuters witness said about 2 000 migrants were still camped out on the highway near the village of Vado Hondo, about 55 kilometres (34 miles) from the borders of Honduras and El Salvador, after clashing with Guatemalan security forces on Sunday.

Reports say the migrants are facing food shortages and hunger while stuck on the highway.

Some migrants evaded the gridlock by fleeing into the hills to continue onward to the border of Mexico, where the government has deployed police and National Guard troopers.

“We ran into the mountains because I’m travelling with my one-year-old,” Diany Deras, a Honduran, told Reuters.

Biden, whose stated plans for immigration are a far cry from the hardline policies of the administration of Donald Trump, is preparing to assume office as the caravan marches towards the United States.

A path to citizenship is at the forefront of his goals. Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming chief of staff, said on Saturday that Biden will send an immigration bill to Congress “on his first day in office”. He did not elaborate and Biden’s office declined to comment on specifics.

The move has surprised advocates given how the issue has long divided Democrats and Republicans, even within their own parties.

“This really does represent a historic shift from Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda that recognises that all of the undocumented immigrants that are currently in the United States should be placed on a path to citizenship,” Marielena Hincapie, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center, who was briefed on the bill, told The Associated Press news agency.

Trump has issued travel bans for people of numerous, mostly majority non-white countries, used illegal requirements to clamp down on asylum claims and increased deportations.

Biden’s transition official, speaking on background, advised people not to make for the US.

“Overcoming the challenges created by the chaotic and cruel policies of the last four years, and those presented by Covid-19, will take time,” the official told Reuters.

But there are political issues that could delay the bill.

Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said Biden told advocates on a call on Thursday that Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate may delay consideration of the bill and they should not count on a passage within 100 days.-Al Jazeera.