After a day, U.S. allows eight caravan migrants to request asylum as scores more wait in Tijuana

Eight members of a group of Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States were admitted Monday night into the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to leaders of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which organized the caravan that traveled through Mexico to the Tijuana-San Diego border.

They were the first to be allowed through since a group of caravan members arrived at the border Sunday afternoon to apply for asylum.

Word of their passage came as U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that it was again accepting asylum seekers and others without documents after a hiatus of close to 27 hours.

At the same time, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had filed charges against 11 people it accused of entering the country illegally and suspected were caravan members.

The suspects were arrested by members of the Border Patrol in areas west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

“When respect for the rule of law diminishes, so too does our ability to protect our great nation, its borders, and its citizens,” Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

Just as members of the caravan had prepared to present themselves at the border to ask for asylum on Sunday afternoon, the Border Patrol announced that its facilities were full and that it did not have the capacity to accept them.

On Monday morning, some 20 members of the caravan, most of them women with small children, spread out on blankets at the door to the port’s pedestrian entrance, known as PedWest, watching as northbound crossers walked past at a rapid clip, heading to jobs, school and shopping excursions.

“I feel that God will help me cross, and will touch the president’s heart,” said José Cristobal Amaya, 16, among the small group waiting at the PedWest door.

The Honduran teenager, who was traveling alone, said he was fleeing gang members who beat his father and threatened to kill his entire family.

The eight caravan members to go through were from this group, with mothers and children the first to be selected, according to a spokesman for Pueblo Sin Fronteras: Three mothers, four children, and an 18-year-old were in the initial group.

The spokesman said that they will remain detained at the port until they receive what is called a credible fear interview with an asylum officer, a screening to determine if the immigrant faces persecution or torture in his or her home country. Those who do are deemed eligible to stay in the country for a full asylum hearing.

Meanwhile a larger group of caravan members continued waiting, spread farther from the PedWest entrance in an open area outside El Chaparral, Mexico’s federal port that connects to San Ysidro.

Attorneys who have been assisting them have said that up to 200 participants had been preparing to apply for asylum.

President Trump has made it clear that he does not look kindly on the caravan. He has tweeted that he instructed the secretary of Homeland Security “to not let these large caravans of people into our country.”

Dibble writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.