About 3,000 migrants from about a dozen Latin American countries began their journey to the United States on foot from southern Mexico on Sunday.
According to multiple reports, the caravan hopes to make it to the border before the presidential election in November, as they fear that former President Donald Trump will win and close the border to so-called “asylum seekers.”
“We are running the risk that permits (to cross the border) might be blocked,” Miguel Salazar, a migrant from El Salvador, told the Associated Press. Salazar added that he feared that a new Trump administration might stop granting appointments to migrants through CBP One, an app used by asylum-seekers to enter the U.S. legally — by getting appointments at U.S. border posts, where they make their cases to officials.
Reportedly, the app only works once the caravan reaches Mexico City, or the states in Northern Mexico. The caravan embarked out of Ciudad Hidalgo, near Guatemala (via AP):
Migrants trying to pass through Mexico in recent years have organized large groups to try to reduce the risk of being attacked by gangs or stopped by Mexican immigration officials as they travel. But the caravans tend to break up in southern Mexico, as people get tired of walking for hundreds of miles (kilometers).
BREAKING: A massive caravan with 3,000 migrants has left southern Mexico, and is currently heading for U.S. border pic.twitter.com/Czbee6GqNf
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 22, 2024
The caravan was announced on social media. One migrant, Oswaldo Reyna, 55, who is from Cuba, reportedly crossed from Guatemala to Mexico to join the caravan.
Under President Joe Biden’s leadership, illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border saw all-time highs. Biden announced this week that he would not seek reelection. He endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
At the beginning of Biden’s term, Harris was appointed to deal with the border crisis. She failed miserably and has since shifted her focus to “abortion rights.”