Oh– Mexican Authorities Are Disbanding The Caravan? Not So Fast…

We have good news and bad news. The good news? The number of people in the caravan of entitled migrants heading to the US border is shrinking. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen gave a few updates last night.

I’ve been advised by Mexican officials that the caravan is dissipating. GOM has repatriated several hundred participants to Central America and is offering refugee status to others who qualify. I thank the GOM for their partnership on this and other security issues.

— Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen (@SecNielsen) April 3, 2018

.@POTUS is right – we need Congress to act immediately to close our immigration loopholes to prevent future groups from seeking to illegally entering the United States. We must use all options.

— Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen (@SecNielsen) April 3, 2018

The bad news? The caravan is not completely gone, and in reality, Mexico may be helping them. Losing a few hundred sounds like a lot, but remember. We’re talking about an original group of over 1,200 people. The BuzzFeed reporter following the caravan, Adolfo Flores, said that most of these people still plan on attempting to enter our country illegally or ask for asylum.

Mexican immigration authorities said they plan on disbanding the Central American caravan by Wednesday in Oaxaca. The most vulnerable will get humanitarian visas.

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

Everyone else in the caravan, which has traveled through Mexico for days from Chiapas, will have to petition the Mexican government for permission to stay in the country or will have to leave.

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

JO Rodríguez, a federal delegate with INM, told me this was not in response to Trump speaking out against the caravan. “Mexico is acting without pressure to find a solution to this problem.”

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

Gina Garibo, an organizer with Pueblos Sin Fronteras, said the caravan was not over. They will continue to travel towards the US with asylum seekers.

“We will continue,” Garibo said. “We have to follow through with our promise.”

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

“At the end of the day these people have the right to ask for asylum,” Garibo said.

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

Mexican authorities are caving.

Another organizer said they pressured Mexican authorities into allowing members of the caravan to travel through Mexico to ask for asylum in the US “without traveling in the shadows.” https://t.co/8f4StglNSF

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

Couple of the migrants from the caravan I’ve spoken to say they’re still weighing whether to take a humanitarian visa or permission from Mexican immigration authorities to stay in the country temporarily.

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

At caravan general meeting Irineo Mujica said the caravan will continue and will not be stopped. The group plans on going to Puebla and then Mexico City. After that they will go on with asylum seekers.

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

Everyone else was encouraged to take a humanitarian visa in Mexico, a document allowing them to travel in Mexico for 10 to 20 days, or document giving them permission to stay in the country for 30 days to file an immigration claim. They will not go beyond Mexico City.

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

But does that really solve the problem? Doesn’t that just give them permission to continue on their journey to our border with greater ease? I mean, they won’t have to worry about Mexican authorities. People Without Borders wants this. Look what this organizer said:

The Caravan bent the Mexican government into providing permission to travel to seek refuge. Don’t be fooled, the government isn’t “disbanding,” it, it’s conceding its participants’ right to apply for asylum without traveling in the shadows.@pjpodesta @PuebloSF @AlOtroLado_Org https://t.co/JpK6ZHuWzk

— Alex Mensing (@alex_mensing) April 3, 2018

As Townhall noted, “Ultimately, this means that some significant number of the thousand or more illegal aliens currently in the caravan will be able to either stay in Mexico or pursue their prior goal of travelling to the U.S. border.”

Lovely.

Don’t forget what Flores originally reported either.

When they get to the US, they hope American authorities will grant them asylum or, for some, be absent when they attempt to cross the border illegally. More likely is that it will set up an enormous challenge to the Trump administration’s immigration policies and its ability to deal with an organized group of migrants numbering in the hundreds.

And this:

Organizers estimate that about two-thirds of people are planing on crossing into the United States undetected or asking for some type of protection like asylum.

This isn’t over. Not yet.