Pictures of asylum speakers are in the national news today. About 200 members of the caravan that traveled from Central America through Mexico have arrived to make their claims of asylum to U.S. border patrol agents. Not many have actually been allowed to begin the process. Joining at Skype is Jean Guerrero, who spent most of the weekend at the border. >> What is the current status of the members of the caravan? Where are they? >> All of them are still in Mexico. Most of them are waiting at the port of entry, not inside, but outside. The last that they were told by U.S. customs and border protection is that the port of entry had not been able to process any new asylum-seekers for the past at least two days. They were given the indication that they would have to wait indefinitely until anyone would be processed. They are still waiting. Most of them are camped out outside of the port of entry overnight. No one has yet been process. >> It is my understanding that U.S. officials said that the inspection facility was full at the border. That was the reason why they couldn't process any new asylum-seekers. Do we know who was already inside the facility, filling it up? >> They announce at the port of entry was full, pretty much right before the caravan started marching to it. We do not know who is in the facility right now. Customs and Border Protection has not been able to confirm for me how many of the beds are currently filled by people who were with the caravan and decided to cross before the main group, or just people who are not affiliated with the caravan at all. I do know that because of all of the attention that the caravan has gotten nationally from the Trump administration, that a lot of the asylum-seekers who started with the group decided to cross before the big Crossing that we saw. Well, the intended Crossing that was on Sunday, because they were worried that the entire trip would be turned away. Some people was booked with who plan to cross beforehand are probably currently in custody, although I have not gotten confirmation from officials that that is the case. >> As you mentioned, this caravan had been expected at the border for some time now. We know if border officials were making preparations to receive them? >> They were. The department of homeland security and the Department of Justice both announced about one week before the care read -- caravan arrived that they knew it was coming in that they would be boosting resources. They did not specify exactly how they would be doing that, although they did say that they would be sending more prosecutors and immigration judges down to the border to adjudicate the cases quickly. The caravan was a little bit surprised to arrive at the border and find out the just before they got there, customs and border protection had announced that they had reached capacity and had no more space and resources to deal with them. Although, like I said, it is possible that the reason that they reached capacity is because some asylum-seekers who were part of the caravan decided to go ahead of the main group because they were afraid of this happening. I spoke to several people who that was the case. They decided to cross a few days before the main crossing. >> Of either Mexico or U.S. officials been talking directly with caravan organizers to figure out what happens next? >> As far as I know, they have not had to do have any direct communication. The caravan organizers were surprised when they heard that U.S. customs and border protection had reached capacity at the San Diego points of entry. They heard that from the reporters who were on the scene. They did not get were directly. The communication that they have been having with officials is just the communication that they have had at the port of entry where they have said, when are you going to have time or resources to be able to takes a more people? And what they have been told is that they don't know. And it could be a while. >> Is this a moot point for a lot of people who were going to be requesting asylum? Most of the claims for asylum get denied? >> That is correct. It is very difficult and time-consuming long process to get asylum. There is an idea that is coming out of the Trump administration based on the caravan that people who come to the border and ask for asylum, that the government is forced to give them a silent -- asylum. In reality, while border officials are supposed to take them into custody and give them an interview with an asylum officer, it is a very long process. They have to prove that they have a credible fear of returning to their home country. If they are able to prove that, they are transferred to detention centers. They need to wait to present their case before an immigration judge, often without an attorney, because they do not have money and the governor does my government does not provide them with an attorney. It is very uncommon. Less than 25% of asylum cases are proved. >> I've been speaking with Jean Guerrero. Thank you.
UPDATE: 9:35 p.m., April 30, 2018:
Central Americans who traveled in a caravan through Mexico to the border with San Diego have begun turning themselves in to U.S. authorities to seek asylum in a challenge to the Trump administration. The migrants began applying for protection at the nation's busiest border crossing Monday after immigration officials said the facility didn't have space to accommodate the group.
Original story:
About 200 people in a caravan of Central American asylum seekers waited on the Mexican border with San Diego for a second straight day on Monday to turn themselves in to U.S. border inspectors, who said the nation's busiest crossing facility did not have enough space to accommodate them.
After a monthlong journey across Mexico under the Trump administration's watchful eye, the asylum seekers faced an unexpected twist Sunday when U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing facility had "reached capacity." The agency said in a statement on Monday that it had no estimate when the location would accept new asylum application cases.
About 50 people, many of them women and children, camped overnight on blankets and backpacks in Tijuana outside the Mexican entrance to the border crossing. The crowd grew Monday, assembled behind metal gates that Mexican authorities erected to avoid impeding the flow of others going to the United States for work, school and recreation.
RELATED: US Says Crossing Is Full Before Caravan Tries To Seek Asylum
Another 50 asylum seekers were allowed past a gate controlled by Mexican officials Sunday to cross a long bridge but were stopped at the entrance to the U.S. inspection facility at the other end. They waited outside the building, technically on Mexican soil, without word of when U.S. officials would let them try to claim asylum.
Irineo Mujica, a caravan organizer, said asylum-seekers who crossed the bridge remained in a waiting area on Mexican soil Monday. He alleged that U.S. authorities were refusing entry in an effort to dissuade people from trying.
"When they say they reached capacity, it's just nonsense from (U.S. authorities) so they can abandon, not attend to, and evade their responsibilities in asylum cases," said Mujica, of the advocacy group Pueblos Sin Fronteras.
Customs and Border Protection said Sunday that it will resume asylum processing at the San Diego crossing when it has more space and resources.
The San Ysidro border inspection facility that divides San Diego from Tijuana can hold about 300 people, meaning the bottleneck may be short-lived. The agency processed about 8,000 asylum cases from October through February at the crossing, or about 50 a day.
Thousands of Haitians seeking to turn themselves in at the San Diego crossing overwhelmed U.S. border inspectors at the San Diego crossing in 2016, leading to the creation of a ticketing system for them. At one point, Haitians had to wait in Tijuana for more than five weeks for their turn.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the caravan since it started in Mexico on March 25 near the Guatemala border and headed north to Tijuana, telling campaign supporters in an email last week that it had to be stopped.
His broadsides came as his administration vowed to end what officials call "legal loopholes" and "catch-and-release" policies that allow people requesting asylum to be released from custody into the U.S. while their claims make their way through the courts, which can take years.
"Catch and release is ridiculous," Trump said Monday at a news conference with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari at the White House. "If they touch our property, if they touch our country, essentially you catch them and you release them into our country. That's not acceptable to anybody."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has called the caravan "a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system." Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said asylum claims will be resolved "efficiently and expeditiously" and warned that anyone making false claims could be prosecuted and said asylum seekers should seek protection in the first safe country they reach, including Mexico.
Asylum seekers did not appear to be thrown off by the delay.
Elin Orellana, a 23-year-old pregnant woman from El Salvador, said she is fleeing the MS-13 street gang, a favorite target of both Sessions and Trump because of their brutal killings committed in the United States.
She said her older sister had been killed by the gang in El Salvador, so she is attempting to join other family members in the Kansas City area.
"Fighting on is worth it," she said Sunday as she camped outside the Mexican entry to the border crossing.
