Asylum or Not: Migrants at US-Mexico Border Mull Choices
April 26, 2018
MEXICALI, MEXICO - On a broken concrete bench in Mexicali's Parque de los Heroes de Chapultepec, 23-year-old Honduran Merlin Sauceda sits alone - with the U.S.-Mexico border in plain sight - watching the afternoon dissolve into evening.
Having arrived days before a caravan of Central American migrants reached the city, he planned to find odd jobs to pay for his shelter and make up some of what was stolen from him on his journey along the freight trains known as “La Bestia.” With the arrival of the migrant caravan, he would continue with the group and travel 200 kilometers west to Tijuana’s port of entry.
Sauceda’s ultimate aim, shared by many migrants from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, was to seek safe harbor in the United States as an asylee - and leave a past of violence forever.
In his case, the Olancho, Honduras-native said he feared that gang members were after him, some 18 years after they killed his “jefe,” or dad.
“The ones that killed him now don’t trust me,” Sauceda said, in Spanish. “They think that I’ll seek revenge, and they’re looking for me.”
