Sometimes when the effort, expense and organization that have gone into the caravan invasion of foreigners comes into focus, you have to wonder why that energy was not directed into reforms in the home country.

Revolution used to be a thing in Latin America, with Cuba and Nicaragua being examples in decades past. Local people took responsibility for their national self-determination through politics and armed conflict. But now it’s just easier to break into the United States to grab jobs and free stuff.

Plus, the enormous sense of entitlement among the caravan invaders is alarming to behold. Various interviews reveal a belief that their economic suffering at home qualifies them for a life in America.

Saturday’s Los Angeles Times had a front-page story featuring a slice of caravan life where one man, Walter Coello, acts as an all-around representative and facilitator for the invader brigade currently parked (mostly) on the Mexico side of the border. It’s like he’s part of a town government that works for the improved life of the people. Why couldn’t that have happened back home in Honduras?

The Times article was reprinted in the Kalispell Montana Inter Lake:

Migrant Caravan in Tijuana Hunkers Down for the Long Haul, Los Angeles Times, December 22, 2018

TIJUANA, Mexico — Standing before dozens of his fellow Central American migrants, Walter Coello raised a megaphone to his lips and made an urgent plea.

“I need four valiant women and four valiant men to help me,” the 41-year-old Honduran told the crowd. He wanted to form a committee of volunteers to organize cleaning and security duties, and to fact-check rumors that were sowing fear and confusion.

“No one has information here. The days are passing us by and we aren’t doing anything, companeros.”

It was a sunny December afternoon, nearly two weeks after 2,500 migrants had moved into their latest home — El Barretal, an abandoned concert venue turned government shelter 30 minutes from the U.S. border — and a month since thousands of members of a roving caravan began streaming into this stressed border city.

Some are determined to cross into the United States as soon as possible. The Mexican government says it has helped an additional 1,100 migrants return to their home countries. Others have taken jobs in local factories or are trying to scrape together a few pesos by selling food or clearing rubble at construction sites while biding their time.

For those who remain, their chances of legally entering the U.S. diminished this week after the Trump administration and Mexico’s government announced Thursday that immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. will be forced to wait in Mexico while their cases are reviewed — a process that can often take well over a year.

So as authorities in both countries continue to debate policy with no long-term solution in sight, many migrants are hunkering down for months, or possibly years, in a purgatory of makeshift accommodations and spotty services.

Coello, who said he had organized committees of migrants along the entire caravan route, has focused on helping resolve the day-to-day issues that arise when hundreds of men, women and children are packed into close quarters with old pipes and little privacy or security. Toilets are clogged. Showers are inoperable. Belongings disappear from tents when people leave to hunt for work. (Continues)