A New Migrant Caravan!
Tapachula, Mexico, Jul 21 (EFE).- By Juan Manuel Blanco
A new caravan of about 3,000 migrants from Central America, South America, and Africa left the Mexican city of Ciudad Hidalgo, on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, on Sunday in an attempt to cross the entire country and advance toward the United States.
The caravan departs amid the uproar among migrants caused this week by the nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican Party’s candidate for the US presidential election in November and his threats of mass deportations of undocumented migrants and severe immigration policies if he wins the presidency a second time.
According to activists, this is the largest group in recent months, mainly families with children in arms and on foot, moving slowly and aiming to cover about 40 kilometers (24 miles) on this first day from Ciudad Hidalgo to the city of Tapachula, where they will rest Sunday night to resume the journey early Monday morning.
The caravan is one of several that migrants are forming four months before the elections in the US, where irregular migration continues unabated.
According to Customs and Border Protection, about 324,000 citizens from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador arrived at the southern border of the US in 2023.
Migration in Mexico has increased significantly since 2018, when caravans of thousands of migrants, mostly Central Americans, began arriving to cross the country to reach the US.
The arrival of migrants has continued in recent years despite the pandemic and restrictions imposed by countries in the region.
Reaching the US to work
The caravan also includes the Peruvian migrant Franco, who stressed that his only goal is to reach the US to work, earn money, and help his family in his country.
The foreigner, who carries a suitcase with his belongings, believes that Trump’s rhetoric is wrong.
“Trump is wrong because he doesn’t allow migrants who are fighting, sweating, and overcoming different obstacles to move forward. You have to support migrants; no one is a criminal; everyone has a purpose in this life. Here are people who know values, who know about respect, who work day after day, always earning money honestly,” the Peruvian told EFE.
On Jul. 19, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced that he would send a letter to Trump, the former president of the US (2017-2021), about migration and the border between the two countries because in his opinion he is not well informed.
The letter he will send next week will also address “the importance of maintaining economic integration” between Mexico, the US, and Canada because “nothing is solved by closing the border.”
On Jul. 18, Trump warned of a migrant “invasion” and said he would close the border with Mexico on the first day of his hypothetical second term. EFE
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