(EFE).- A huge caravan of nearly 15,000 migrants, the most numerous to date, departed the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas on Monday with the goal of reaching the United States.
That journey was timed to coincide with the beginning of the Summit of the Americas, a five-day event in Los Angeles where the immigration issue will be a major focal point.
The first priority for this group of mostly Venezuelan, Central American and African migrants is to find a new National Institute of Migration (INM) office and regularize their situation in Mexico, since they have been unable to do so in Tapachula, a city near the Guatemalan border.
Undeterred by a heavy downpour, they set off walking at 6.30 am and covered themselves as best they could with umbrellas, cardboard, plastic bags, ponchos and towels.
During the initial stretch of their journey, they walked for more than eight kilometers (five miles) and passed an initial checkpoint manned by members of the National Guard – a police force created in 2019 and used mainly to boost enforcement of immigration law – and the INM, who merely observed the passing caravan.
The director of the non-governmental organization Centro de Dignificacion Humana (Center for Human Dignity), Luis Rey Garcia Villagran, said a total of 5,000 families have joined the caravan, including nearly 93 pregnant women and 3,000 children.
“This migrant crisis must be addressed in accordance with the law. Humanitarian visas for one year, immediately, that are valid in national territory,” Garcia Villagran, an activist known for accompanying and championing the rights of migrant caravans, told Efe.
STRANDED IN SOUTHERN MEXICO
John Romero, a Venezuelan migrant, told Efe that he and his family have been trying unsuccessfully to obtain a humanitarian visa he says was promised to them in the past by Mexican authorities.
They have an immigration appointment scheduled for some time within the next three months, but he said they needed to head northward because the risk was too high that the police would detain them and deport them to Guatemala.
“We don’t want to stay in Mexico. We want to leave. That’s why we’re going with everything.”
BRINGING PRESSURE ON SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS
This latest caravan is designed to bring pressure to bear on the Summit of the Americas, which will run from Monday to Friday in Los Angeles and aim, among other things, to reach a regional agreement on strengthening immigration cooperation.
With chants of “freedom, freedom, we’re migrants, not criminals!” the members of the caravan departed with suitcases, water bottles and the hope they will be able to advance northward unimpeded.
Adrian Castillo, another Venezuelan, said the goal of the march is to underscore migrants’ need to leave Tapachula.
The migrants want Mexican authorities to help to the extent they can, “since we all want to go to North America to change the way we’re living,” he said.
The caravan’s goal on Monday is to advance at least 18 kilometers (11 miles)
The caravan is the latest manifestation of the wave of migration to the US, whose Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency recorded a record total of more than 1.7 million illegal border crossings in the 2021 fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30.
Since the 2022 fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2021, the CBP says that more than 1 million migrants have been intercepted along the US’s southern border.
Mexico, for its part, says it deported more than 114,000 foreigners in 2021, the highest number in nearly 15 years, according to figures from the Migrant Policy Unit. EFE
© 2022 EFE News Services (U.S.) Inc.
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“A huge caravan of nearly 15,000 migrants, the most numerous to date, departed the southeastern Mexican state of Chiapas on Monday with the goal of reaching the United States.”
And we know that this treasonous socialist Democrat Party will greet them with open arms and a $15,000.00 welcome check. PAID FOR by the U.S. citizen taxpayers.
I wonder, how many of those ALREADY HAVE BEEN PAID by US ‘charities’, TO COME HERE??
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Thousands of migrants left southern Mexico on Monday with the intention of heading to the United States, where the Summit of the Americas is starting this week with migration on the agenda.
Luis Garcia Villagran, coordinator at the Human Dignity Center NGO accompanying the caravan, said there would be “more than 15,000” people in the group, which AFP reporters watched depart the city of Tapachula.
Migrants chanted “Freedom!” and “We want visas!” and carried small flags from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Honduras as they set off on the 3,000-kilometer (1,860-mile) journey to the US border.
Since then, Mexico has stepped up its border controls and in 2021 more than 300,000 undocumented migrants were detained there. Forner democrat President, Barack H. Obams , once said, ” We Are, And Always will Be, A Land of Immigrants.”
TO ME< every dam NGO< FUNDING or otherwise supporting this invasion, should be charged with HIGH TREASON.
articles of impeachment for all of the politicians who are letting this INVASION take place.
we the people are being replaced by democrat illegals. not to mention the terrorist who have crossed into america.
if this is not stopped the country will not recover from this.
to the gop i say this.
where are the injuctions where are the law suits where is the outrage?????
you are cowards and you do not deserve my MONEY nor my VOTE.
everyday trump was in the whitehouse the demonic left sued,lied stole made up and filed injuctions along with screaming bloody murder.
and you were silent then just like now.
you are just as responasble as the left for the demise of AMERICA.
Articles, of HIGH TREASON more like!!
Hey, Harris—your Border “Challenge” is getting way out of control.
Will someone explain to me WHY the Government and all it’s agencies can not be forced to enforce our LAWS. Is it time for American citizens to go to the border and forbid the illegals from crossing OUR border? Why is this INVASION of our COUNTRY not being STOPPED?
Stop sending our tax dollars to the corrupt Ukraine and use it for the INVASION of our own country !!!!
COMMENTWhy? Because American citizens let them get away with it. Far too many of our elected officials in both political parties were more than willing to sell their soul and their country for money, power and/or votes. We re-elect most of them!
BECAUSE the ‘enforcement of laws’, these days is a bloody joke.