A large group of migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba, and other places is moving through Mexico towards the U.S. border. This is happening just before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Mexico City to discuss ways to control the increasing number of migrants trying to enter the United States.
The caravan consists of about 6,000 people, including many families with young children. It’s the biggest caravan in over a year, showing that efforts by the Biden administration and Mexico’s government to stop migration are not working well.
The caravan started on Christmas Eve from Tapachula, near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. Security forces are watching, using a strategy where they wait for the marchers to get tired, and then offer them temporary legal status. Many use this status to continue their journey north.
One migrant, Cristian Rivera, who left his wife and child in Honduras, said, “We’ve been waiting here for three or four months without an answer. Hopefully, with this march, there will be a change, and we can get the permission we need to head north.”
In May, Mexico agreed to take in migrants turned away by the U.S. But this deal, meant to reduce migration after the pandemic, seems insufficient, as the number of migrants is rising again. This is causing problems for trade and increasing anti-migrant feelings among U.S. conservative voters.
In recent days, as many as 10,000 migrants were arrested daily at the U.S. southwest border. Border rail traffic in Texas had to be suspended because migrants were riding on freight trains.
López Obrador, Mexico’s president, said he’s willing to work with the U.S. again on migration concerns. He also asked the Biden administration to ease sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela and provide more aid to Latin American countries.
The U.S. delegation, meeting the Mexican president, includes Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House homeland security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.
Mexico’s ability to help the U.S. may be limited. In December, a program to repatriate and transfer migrants within Mexico was stopped due to a lack of funds. This year, Mexico found over 680,000 migrants living illegally and had a record 137,000 foreigners seeking asylum.
This caravan is the largest since June 2022, when a similar group left as Biden hosted leaders in Los Angeles. Another march in October coincided with a summit organized by López Obrador, and a month later, 3,000 migrants blocked the main border crossing with Guatemala for over 30 hours.
