First Central American caravan members admitted at San Ysidro Port of Entry

Eight members of a group of Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States were admitted Monday night into the San Ysidro Port of Entry, according to leaders of the Pueblo Sin Fronteras Caravan that brought them to the Tijuana-San Diego border.

They were the first to be allowed through since a group of caravan members arrived at the border on Sunday afternoon to apply for asylum.

Word of their passage came as U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that it was again accepting asylum seekers and others without documents after a hiatus of close to 27 hours.

Just as members of the Pueblo Sin Fronteras Caravan had prepared to present themselves at the border to ask for asylum, CBP had announced on Sunday afternoon that its facilities were full and that it did not have the capacity to accept them.

On Monday morning, some 20 members of the caravan, most of them women with small children, spread out on blankets at the door to the port’s PedWest entrance, watching as northbound pedestrian crossers filed past at a rapid clip, heading to jobs, school and shopping excursions.

“I feel that God will help me cross, and will touch the president’s heart,” said José Cristobal Amaya, 16, among the small group waiting at the PedWest door.

The Honduran teenager, who was traveling alone, said he was fleeing gang members he calls Los Mareros who beat his father and threatened to kill his entire family.