Thousands be part of migrant caravan in Mexico forward of Secretary of State Blinken’s go to to the capital
TAPACHULA, Mexico — A sprawling caravan of migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba and different nations trekked by means of Mexico on Sunday, heading towards the U.S. border. The procession got here simply days earlier than Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Mexico City to hammer out new agreements to manage the surge of migrants in search of entry into the United States.
The caravan, estimated at round 6,000 folks, a lot of them households with younger youngsters, is the biggest in additional than a 12 months, a transparent indication that joint efforts by the Biden administration and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s authorities to discourage migration are falling quick.
The Christmas Eve caravan departed from town of Tapachula, close to the nation’s southern border with Guatemala. Security forces seemed on in what gave the impression to be a repeat of previous techniques when authorities waited for the marchers to tire out after which provided them a type of non permanent authorized standing that’s utilized by many to proceed their journey northward.
“We’ve been waiting here for three or four months without an answer,” stated Cristian Rivera, touring alone, having left his spouse and baby in his native Honduras. “Hopefully with this march there will be a change and we can get the permission we need to head north.”
López Obrador in May agreed to absorb migrants from nations akin to Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba turned away by the U.S. for not following guidelines that offered new authorized pathways to asylum and different types of migration.
But that deal, aimed toward curbing a post-pandemic leap in migration, seems to be inadequate because the variety of migrants as soon as once more surges, disrupting bilateral commerce and stoking anti-migrant sentiment amongst conservative voters within the U.S.
This month, as many as 10,000 migrants have been arrested per day on the U.S. southwest border. Meanwhile, U.S. Customs and Border Protection needed to droop cross-border rail visitors within the Texas cities of Eagle Pass and El Paso as migrants have been using atop freight trains.
Arrests for unlawful crossing topped 2 million in every of the U.S. authorities’s final two fiscal years, reflecting technological adjustments which have made it simpler for migrants to depart dwelling to flee poverty, pure disasters, political repression and arranged crime.
On Friday, López Obrador stated he was prepared to work once more with the U.S. to deal with considerations about migration. But he additionally urged the Biden administration to ease sanctions on leftist governments in Cuba and Venezuela – the place about 20% of 617,865 migrants encountered nationwide in October and November hail from – and ship extra assist to growing nations in Latin America and past.
“That is what we are going to discuss, it is not just contention,” López Obrador stated at a press briefing Friday following a telephone dialog the day earlier than with President Joe Biden to pave the best way for the excessive degree U.S. delegation.
The U.S. delegation, which can meet the Mexican president on Wednesday, may also embody Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House homeland safety adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.
Mexico‘s ability to assist the U.S. may be limited, however. In December, the government halted a program to repatriate and transfer migrants inside Mexico due to a lack of funds. So far this year, Mexico has detected more than 680,000 migrants living illegally in the country, while the number of foreigners seeking asylum in the country has reached a record 137,000.
Sunday’s caravan was the biggest since June 2022, when a equally sized group departed as Biden hosted leaders in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas. Another march departed Mexico in October, coinciding with a summit organized by López Obrador to debate the migration disaster with regional leaders. A month later, 3,000 migrants blocked for greater than 30 hours the principle border crossing with Guatemala.
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Associated Press writers Joshua Goodman in Miami and Maria Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.
