Thousands of migrants heading toward U.S.
Thousands of migrants set off from southern Mexico this past week in one of the largest caravans seeking to reach the United States in recent years. The mass movement coincided with a recent meeting in Los Angeles of leaders from the Western Hemisphere, where migration was a key focus.
Although migrant caravans have become a common phenomenon, the latest march by about 6,000 people walking along Mexican highways has drawn significant international attention.
Mexico’s migration agency said Saturday it had issued nearly 7,000 temporary documents and transit visas over the last few days to members of the caravan and that it had broken up in southern Mexico.
Hundreds of people were heading north in buses while others were spread out over various towns north of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border, resting or waiting to receive money from relatives to continue their trip to the United States.
Many of the migrants came from Venezuela and had already trekked hundreds of miles through jungles and across multiple borders before arriving in Mexico. Once in Mexico, a migrant is usually required to stay in Tapachula until Mexican authorities grant a humanitarian visa to travel farther, a process that can take months.
“Tapachula has become a giant migrant jail,” said Luis García Villagrán, a spokesperson for the caravan. “The Mexican authorities have a knot, a bureaucratic fence, a bureaucratic wall, obviously under pressure from the United States.”
Rather than languish in Tapachula, some migrants either pay human traffickers, many of whom have links to organized crime, or bribe immigration officials to speed up the process, García said in a phone interview.
Still others try to bypass the Mexican visa process and join the groups heading north, he said, believing that their large numbers will make it more difficult for Mexican authorities to halt their progress.
Last year, Mexico apprehended more than 300,000 migrants — the highest number on record, according to Human Rights Watch, while more than 130,000 people have applied for asylum in the country. Such numbers have “overwhelmed” Mexico’s asylum system, the report said.
The presence of many Venezuelans in the caravan follows a shift in Mexico’s policy toward migrants from the South American nation, which has been consumed by political and economic crises. Since January, Venezuelans have needed visas to enter Mexico, a rule that many try to circumvent by crossing in large groups at land borders rather than flying.
Rusbeli Martínez pushed a shopping cart alongside her son and other family members. After leaving Venezuela years ago, the family had been living in Colombia, which is home to roughly 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants. But in Colombia, she said, they found a harsh reception and little work.
“We lived in an area with a lot of crime; they threatened us that we should leave,” Martínez said. “Otherwise, they would burn down the house.”
Young men make up a large number of those in the caravan, but there are also many families with children. About 3,000 minors were traveling in the group, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
Venezuelan migrants stood on the roof of an immigration detention center in Tapachula after an uprising that migrants said was caused by poor sanitary conditions, a lack of food, overcrowding, and delays in migration and asylum processing.
“We’re not criminals,” said one migrant, Valentina Alfonso. She said her uncle had been detained by Mexican authorities for several days. “We’re professionals. We have our careers, our studies,” Alfonso said. “This is inhumane.”
Since October, Mexican authorities have dispersed other caravans by offering to move migrants to other cities where they can legalize their status more quickly. The goal was to lessen migrant pressure in the south.
Human rights groups have criticized the migration agency’s
lack of transparency in carrying out these procedures.