HUIXTLA, Mexico — Underneath a beating solar, hundreds of migrants in a caravan continued to trudge by means of southern Mexico on Tuesday, with some saying they anticipate nothing good from an upcoming assembly this week between American and Mexican officers in regards to the migrant surge on the U.S. border.
The migrants handed by Mexico’s predominant inland immigration inspection level exterior the city of Huixtla, in southern Chiapas state. Nationwide Guard officers there made no try and cease the estimated 6,000 members of the caravan.
The migrants have been making an attempt to make it to the following city, Villa Comaltitlan, about 11 miles (17 kilometers) northwest of Huixtla. Prior to now, Mexico has let migrants undergo, trusting that they’d tire themselves out strolling alongside the freeway. No migrant caravan has ever walked the 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) to the U.S. border.
U.S. officers are anticipated to press Mexico to cease extra migrants at a gathering scheduled for Wednesday.
The assembly “might be between fools and fools, who need to use ladies and youngsters as buying and selling items,” mentioned migrant activist Luis García Villagrán, one of many organizers of the caravan. “We’re not buying and selling items for any politician.”
“What Mexico desires is the cash, the cash to detain and deport migrants,” Villagrán mentioned.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed final week that U.S. officers need Mexico to do extra to dam migrants at its southern border with Guatemala, or make it harder to maneuver throughout Mexico by practice or in vans or buses — a coverage generally known as “rivalry.”
However the president mentioned that in change, he desires the US to ship extra improvement help to migrants’ house international locations, and to scale back or get rid of sanctions towards Cuba and Venezuela, noting “that’s what we’re going to focus on, it’s not simply rivalry.”
Some on the caravan, like Norbey Díaz Rios, a migrant from Colombia, mentioned turning again was not an possibility. Díaz Rios, 46, mentioned he left his house due to threats from prison gangs, and plans to ask for asylum within the U.S.
“You realize that you’re strolling for a function, with a purpose in thoughts, however it’s not sure if you’ll make it, or what obstacles you will see that alongside the best way,” mentioned Díaz Rios. “I can not return to Colombia.”
“They need to give me an opportunity to stay in a rustic the place I can get papers and work and supply for my household,” he added.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Homeland Safety Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White Home homeland safety adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall will journey to Mexico Metropolis for the talks.
This month, as many as 10,000 migrants have been arrested every day on the southwest U.S. border.
The Mexican authorities felt strain to deal with that drawback, after U.S. officers briefly closed two important Texas railway border crossings, claiming they have been overwhelmed by processing migrants.
That put a chokehold on freight shifting from Mexico to the U.S., in addition to grain wanted to feed Mexican livestock shifting south. The rail crossings have since been reopened, however the message appeared clear.
The caravan began out on Christmas Eve from the town of Tapachula, close to the border with Guatemala, and migrants spent Christmas night time sleeping on scraps of cardboard or plastic stretched out below awnings, in tents, or on the naked floor.
The migrants included single adults but additionally whole households, all keen to succeed in the U.S. border, indignant and pissed off at having to attend weeks or months within the close by metropolis of Tapachula for paperwork which may enable them to proceed their journey.
Mexico says it detected 680,000 migrants shifting by means of the nation within the first 11 months of 2023.
In Might, Mexico agreed to absorb migrants from international locations reminiscent of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who had been turned away by the U.S. for not following guidelines that offered new authorized pathways to asylum and different types of migration.
However that deal, geared toward curbing a post-pandemic soar in migration, seems to be inadequate as numbers rise as soon as once more, disrupting bilateral commerce and stoking anti-migrant sentiment.
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Comply with AP’s protection of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america