Another Haitian caravan will head to the U.S. Border from Southern Mexico in late October, according to new reports this week. The migrants are being led by an American activist who said the group is “ready for war.”
“We are leaving in 20 days. We prefer to march with (travel) papers. […] And this time, with papers or without papers, we are ready for war,” Pueblo Sin Fronteras activist Irineo Mujica said Tuesday, according to a translation by Border Report. “If the National Guard comes and they are cowardly enough to beat women and children, let them prepare because God’s hand is with us.”
Mujica is a United States citizen working with the nonprofit Pueblo Sin Fronteras. The group is expected to depart Tapachula around October 25.
“‘CARAVANA Mother’ will come out of #Tapachula#Chiapas In the next few days, the Mother Caravan will leave the southern border with or without documents in hand. @IrineoMujica director of @PuebloSF,” one post on Twitter stated.
While the number of Haitian and Central American migrants in Mujica’s caravan is unknown, Border Report noted that the announcement confirms a Panamanian official’s recent warnings that around 60,000 Haitians are making their way north to the United States.
“Migrants demonstrated and blocked the main streets of Tapachula, with the aim of leaving the city where they have been waiting for their documentation for months,” a Mexican news’ outlet tweeted, according to a Twitter translation.
Last week, Mujica and other advocates asked Mexican federal courts in the state of Chiapas to force the National Migration Institute (INM) and the National Refugee Commission to recognize around 12,000 migrants’ right to seek asylum.
The courts agreed to protect the migrants from deportation, but would not guarantee asylum, the activists said.
In response, the INM said no Haitians have been given asylum protection, adding that the migrants are not guaranteed free transport north.
“The INM makes this information available so that people who are migrants aren’t given erroneous information, false documents or become victims of extortion,” the Mexican agency said.
The agency said it favors has arrested over 100 migrants heading north, adding that its goal is “safe, orderly and legal” migration.
“They have no intention of letting the Haitians leave, unless it is to Haiti,” Mujica said. “That is why we are seeking the amparos. With those writs, (Mexican) immigration cannot detain them, and they know it.”
The new migrant caravan comes just weeks after nearly 12,000 illegal immigrants walked across the border in Del Rio and camped out under the international bridge.
Sec. Mayorkas later admitted that between 10,000 and 12,000 illegal Haitian immigrants were released into the U.S. The Biden administration is also reportedly preparing for as many as 400,000 illegal immigrants to enter the United States southern border in October in an unprecedented surge, Department of Homeland Security officials told NBC News this week.
