A massive migrant caravan continues to make its way north through southern Mexico to the United States’ southern border, tackling another 13 miles of the trek by Wednesday afternoon.
According to The Associated Press, roughly 2,000 migrants departed the southern Mexican city of Tapachula near the Guatemala border on Saturday. After a day of rest, the group appeared to increase by the thousands when it left Huixtla, and leaders estimated it had grown to 4,000 people by the time it reached the town of Villa Comaltitlan on Wednesday.
Fox News correspondent Griff Jenkins shared video of the caravan on Twitter. Jenkins wrote that one migrant from El Salvador said, “Tell Biden we are coming.”
Irineo Mujica, an immigration activist with People without Borders, said the “caravan is like a magnet” that goes “sucking up people.” The activist said migrants “who had been in the towns (of coastal Chiapas) are joining.”
One of the migrants, Bayron Zavala of Nicaragua, said he caught up with the caravan on his bike before saying he would walk with the group “as far as God gives us the strength” and “if possible, continue to the United States.”
This caravan, which is primarily composed of Central Americans, walked through a customs, immigration and military checkpoint without issue, the AP reported.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday that the Mexican government would approach the caravan “prudently” while still respecting the law and human rights.
Thousands of soldiers, law enforcement and immigration officers have been deployed by Mexican officials in the south, and recently, no large caravans have been able to make it out of states bordering Guatemala.
Despite the odds being stacked against them, migrants continue attempting the dangerous journey. Cristina Romero is hoping to make it to the U.S. to get her 12-year-old son treatment for a developmental delay.
Romero applied for asylum in Mexico, but was denied after waiting four months for a response. “They told me I could appeal the case, but that it could come out the same,” she said. “Then I heard about this caravan and I was up for coming.”
According to Fox News, one migrant from Nigeria said he hopes President Joe Biden will help him enter the United States.
“He knows the situation in Nigeria. And I believe he is a good man. Very accommodating,” the migrant said. “He’s going to help us.”
In September, border officials arrested 192,001 illegal immigrants at the US-Mexico border, according to recently released United States Customs and Border Protection statistics, bringing the total number of those detained in FY21 to 1,734,686.
