at migrants camped in city

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Hundreds of Tijuana residents congregated around a monument in an affluent section of the city south of California on Sunday to protest the thousands of Central American migrants who have arrived via caravan in hopes of a new life in the U.S. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Many of the nearly 3,000 Central American migrants who have reached the Mexican border with California via caravan said Saturday they do not feel welcome in the city of Tijuana, where hundreds more migrants are headed after more than a month on the road. The Mexican federal government estimates the number of migrants could soon swell to 10,000. With U.S. border inspectors processing only about 100 asylum claims a day at the main border crossing with San Diego, prospects grew that migrants would be stuck waiting in Tijuana for months. Asylum seekers register their names in a tattered notebook managed by migrants themselves that had more than 3,000 names even before the caravan arrived. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Anti-migrant protesters clashed with a pro-migrant demonstrator in the Mexican city of Tijuana

Hundreds of residents have taken to the streets of a Mexican border town, in protest at the arrival of thousands of migrants trying to get to the US. on Sunday in front of a statue of the Aztec ruler Cuauhtemoc, 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) from the U.S. border. They accused the migrants of being messy, ungrateful, and a danger to Tijuana. They also complained about how the caravan forced its way into Mexico, calling it an “invasion.” And they voiced worries that their taxes might be spent to care for the group. Keyla Zamarrón, a teacher, said the protesters don't represent her way of thinking as she held a sign saying: Childhood has no borders. Alden Rivera, the Honduran ambassador in Mexico, told the AP on Saturday that 1,800 Hondurans have returned to their country since the caravan first set out on October 13, and that he hopes more will make that decision. “We want them to return to Honduras,” Rivera said, adding that each migrant must weigh whether to go home, appeal for asylum in Mexico or wait in line to apply for asylum in the U.S. Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum has called the migrants' arrival an "avalanche" that the city is ill-prepared to handle, calculating that they will be in Tijuana for at least six months as they wait to file asylum claims. The city opened the complex after other shelters were filled to capacity. U.S. President Donald Trump, who sought to make the caravan a campaign issue in the midterm elections, used Twitter on Sunday to voice support for the mayor of Tijuana and try to discourage the migrants from seeking entry to the U.S.

Trump wrote that like Tijuana, "the U.S. is ill-prepared for this invasion, and will not stand for it. Back home in La Ceiba, Honduras, he sold pirated CDs and DVDs in the street and two gangs demanding "protection" money threatened to kidnap his daughter and force her into prostitution if he didn't pay. AP writer Julie Watson contributed to this story from Tijuana and Marcos Aleman contributed from San Salvador.
Hundreds of residents take to the streets in the Mexican city Tijuana, in protest of the arrival of thousands of migrants trying to get to the United States.