Border Dispatch: The Legacy Of The Migrant Caravan, One Year Later | Wendy Fry

The images and stories captivated the world's attention. An exhausted 4-year-old collapsed to the ground, crying, her tiny legs unable to carry her another step. Thousands of Central Americans, each with their own unique personal story, many from Honduras and fleeing gang violence, gathered at the base of a tall, yellow fence, the border with Mexico in Tecún Umán, Guatemala, ready to break it down. The crowd stretched as far down the road as anyone could see. A year later, some of those iconic images and stories cannot be forgotten, even as the caravan that arrived in Tijuana on Nov. 19, 2018 has scattered in different directions of the world: some making tentative and fragile lives in the United States; some back in Honduras; some working and living in Tijuana, still hoping for their chance at the American Dream. The notoriety of the 2018 and 2019 caravans that arrived in the region was fueled partly by the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who tweeted regularly about it as it made its way north through Mexico ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. Trump labeled the people in the caravan "invaders," and deployed American soldiers to the border, foreshadowing a confrontation with it that brewed for weeks ahead of U.S. border agents deploying tear gas on asylum-seekers the day after Thanksgiving.