Migrants already at border fret over impact of caravans

Waiting on the southern end of a bridge that leads to the United States, Humberto Alvarez Gonzalez warily follows the progress of the caravans winding through Mexico with the goal of reaching the border.

Alvarez and about two dozen other people are waiting in Matamoros, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, because U.S. customs officers say there’s no space to process them. They sleep on cots near the bridge. Some have waited for two weeks.

Now, Alvarez, a 32-year-old from Cuba, is worried that large waves of migrants in caravans still hundreds of miles away from the border might provoke the U.S. government to reject them altogether.

“Our idea is to enter before the caravan,” he said.