LGBT migrants, from the caravan of Central Americans, arrive in Tijuana

A group of people from the LGBT community, who separated from the main caravan of Central American migrants that travels through Mexico these days, arrived Sunday in the border city of Tijuana, from where they will ask for asylum in the United States.

These 85 migrants, who traveled by bus, are the first members of the caravan to reach the border with the United States and arrived in the city after passing through San Luis Rio Colorado (Sonora) and Mexicali (Baja California).

They settled in the beach area of Tijuana and in the next few days they plan to request asylum at the El Chaparral border crossing to the USA.

Cesar Mejia, a Honduran journalist, told a group of reporters that the LGBT migrants are coming with the caravan and the caravan is still coming along. But the LGBT community wants to avoid being the last group to be taken into account.

They agreed to separate from the caravan to arrive before their comrades and “be taken into account” because throughout the journey, which began on Oct. 13 in San Pedro Sula (northern Honduras), they have suffered discrimination.

“There was no physical violence, but verbal, quite a lot, as it is already the custom in our country,” Mejia pointed out.

Although initially reluctant to reveal what funds have been paid for the buses that brought them to the border, a dispute with the residents of the area led the Honduran to admit that the vehicles were paid with private funds.

“It is the legal agents who paid for us, American lawyers,” he said.

The rest of the members of the caravan remains far behind and still have several more days to reach Tijuana, the point they have chosen as their destination because the road is considered the safest of the migratory routes.

The largest group of the caravan, more than 4,000 people, would rest on Sunday in the city of Irapuato, in the state of Guanajuato, while another group of migrants, who are more ahead, has advanced to Tepic, the capital of the state of Nayarit, in the west of the country.