A small caravan of migrants sets out from southern Mexico but is unlikely to reach the US
A small caravan of migrants sets out from southern Mexico but is unlikely to reach the US
TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — A new caravan of migrants began walking from southern Mexico on Thursday toward the U.S. border, starting out from the city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala.
The majority of the migrants are from Venezuela, but they also include people from Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru and Ecuador. They’ve said they are tired of being blocked from crossing Mexico by the government.
Though previous caravans have said they intend to reach the border — something that was almost never achieved — the migrants in the new caravan appear to be less clear about where they were headed. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to prevent migrants from entering the United States and stage mass deportations of those already in the country.
Many of the migrants said they were simply tired of being bottled up in Tapachula — a city tired of hosting thousands of migrants and one where they cannot find much work.
Giscarlis Colmenares, a 29-year-old from Venezuela, has been waiting for almost three months for an asylum appointment through the U.S. CBP One app.
Colmenares said her immediate goal was to reach Mexico City to find “work, so that we see whether we can get, ahead, or stay here and earn enough money to return to Venezuela.”
An improvised migrant camp in downtown Mexico City was already full to overflowing with migrants.
Some recognized the difficulties involved in reaching the U.S.
Douglas Ernesto, from El Salvador, trudged along with the caravan on Thursday, with his wife and 10-year-old son.
“Our goal is the United States, but if not, we’ll stay in Mexico,” Ernesto said, acknowledging “that getting beyond Tapachula is very difficult.”
The caravan has little or no chance of making it more than a few dozen miles. In November, Mexican officials broke up two similar migrant caravans not far from Tapchula.
Apart from the much larger first caravans in 2018 and 2019 — which were provided buses to ride part of the way north — no caravan has ever reached the U.S. border walking or hitchhiking in any cohesive way, though some individuals have made it.
For years, migrant caravans have often been blocked, harassed or prevented from hitching rides by Mexican police and immigration agents. They have also frequently been rounded up or returned to areas near the Guatemalan border.
By EDGAR H. CLEMENTE
Associated Press
