Huge caravan of migrants heading toward U.S. border
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 and are usually broken up by authorities long before they reach the U.S. southern border, the latest march by about 6,000 people walking along Mexican highways has drawn significant international attention.
Many of the migrants came from Venezuela and already had 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 the southern city of 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 Garcia Villagran, 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, Garcia 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.
Natalia Gomez Quintero, a spokesperson for Mexico's National Institute for Migration, said efforts were being made to provide migrants with legal paperwork in Tapachula.
“A good part of those who make up the caravan already have documentation,” she said.
Still, Mexico's National Guard often is dispatched to stem the flow of migrants north.
Stories of migrant mistreatment are widespread. A report by Human Rights Watch released this past week found that “migrants and asylum-seekers who enter Mexico through its southern border face abuses and struggle to obtain protection or legal status.”