Caravan Hunger Strike

Caravan women launch hunger strike, putting pressure on U.S. and Mexico


A group of migrant women in the caravan announced Thursday that it would begin a hunger strike to protest the slow pace at which the women are being allowed to apply for asylum, as officials from the United States and Mexico are set to meet this weekend to negotiate a plan to process their claims.

The fast, which has no set end date, represents a dramatic escalation from the migrants, most of whom have been waiting in Tijuana, Mexico, to cross into the United States through official ports of entry for weeks.
The protest raises the stakes for the governments of the United States and Mexico, which have been engaged in a back-and-forth about how to process migrants' asylum claims. On Sunday, President Donald Trump said on Twitter that Mexico would essentially act as a waiting room for migrants as their applications are processed in the United States, though Mexican officials

Fifteen women are set to begin striking, and they expect the number will increase gradually. The women who led the group said they want the governments to expedite humanitarian visas for them, to increase the number of migrants being allowed to cross into the United States and to halt deportations against migrants.

"There is nothing worse than to live on the run, withstanding hunger," one of the women said in a news conference livestreamed by immigrant rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras. "We are not afraid."