ARRIAGA, Mexico -- More than 100 Mexican federal officers carrying plastic shields abandoned a blockade they had formed on a bridge Saturday, allowing a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants to advance toward the United States.
The officers ended the standoff after representatives from Mexico's National Human Rights Commission told police that a rural stretch of highway without shade, toilets or water was no place for migrants to entertain a government offer of asylum in Mexico.
Police boarded buses and headed farther down the highway while migrants cheered and vowed to trek all the way to the U.S. border despite fierce opposition from President Donald Trump. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Friday launched a program dubbed "You are home," which promises shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to Central Americans who agree to stay in the southern Mexican states of Chiapas or Oaxaca.
Police Commissioner Benjamin Grajeda said authorities only blocked the highway Saturday to tell people about the offer. "Here in this truck right now, you can get help," he said.
Thousands of migrants in the city of Arriaga rejected the plan Friday night, but they said they could be willing to discuss it again once they reach Mexico City. Some fear they will be deported if they take part in the program. The caravan on Saturday set out for Tapanatepec, about 29 miles up the road. Many members have been traveling for more than two weeks.
Orbelina Orellana, a migrant from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, said she and her husband left three children behind and had decided to continue north one way or another.
"Our destiny is to get to the border," she said.
She was suspicious of the government's proposal and said that some Hondurans who had applied for legal status had already been sent back. Her claims could not be verified, but migrants' representatives in the talks asked the Mexican government to provide a list of those who had been forced to return.
Mexico's Interior Ministry said that temporary identification numbers had been issued to 111 migrants under the "You are home" program. The IDs authorize the migrants to stay and work in Mexico. The ministry said pregnant women, children and the elderly were among those who had joined the program and were being attended to at shelters. Several mayors have rolled out the welcome mat for migrants who reached their towns -- arranging for food and campsites.
On Saturday, government officials were helping migrants move along the route. Martin Rojas, an agent from Mexico's migrant-protection agency Grupo Beta, said officials had begun handing out water and giving rides to stragglers in the agency's pickups.
"There are people fainting; there are wounded," said Rojas, who spoke to The Associated Press after dropping off a group of women and children in Tapantapec, where the caravan planned to spend the night in the town square. Rojas transported them to their destination after spotting them on a highway trudging through temperatures approaching 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
At other times, police have ejected migrant passengers from buses by enforcing an obscure road insurance regulation. An official with the national immigration authority said Friday that 300 Hondurans and Guatemalans who crossed the Mexican border illegally had been detained. The group was walking in broad daylight but was far from the main caravan.
The caravan still must travel 1,000 miles to reach the nearest U.S. border crossing at McAllen, Texas, and the trip could be twice as long if the group of some 4,000 migrants heads for the Tijuana-San Diego frontier, as another caravan did earlier this year. Only about 200 in that group made it to the border.
On Friday, the Pentagon approved a request for additional troops at the southern border, likely to total several hundred, to help the U.S. Border Patrol.
Defense Secretary James Mattis signed off on the request for help from the Department of Homeland Security and authorized the military staff to work out details such as the size, composition and estimated cost of the deployments, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss planning that has not yet been publicly announced. Raising concerns about the caravan and illegal immigration to rally his Republican base, Trump insinuated that gang members and "Middle Easterners" are mixed in with the group, though he later acknowledged there was no proof of that.
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Watson and Amy Guthrie of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/28/2018