Migrant caravans continue despite Trump’s threats

A fifth migrant caravan of around 1,500 people has set out this week from the southern border of Mexico, in Tapachula, Chiapas. Like the previous ones, its objective is to take people as far north as possible. However, in recent weeks the Mexican authorities have reinforced their measures to try to break up these groups of people. Despite Donald Trump’s threats, thousands of people continue to cross the border with Mexico with the aim of reaching the United States before the Republican takes office on January 20. Everyone fears that the president-elect will close the border and fulfill his promise of mass deportations against undocumented people.

President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about this issue during her morning press conference on Tuesday and assured that Mexico will be prepared for the possible deportation of its compatriots. It remains to be seen what will happen to people from other countries. “If there were a deportation, we are also preparing to welcome to Mexico all Mexicans who for some reason are deported from the United States,” she said, noting that the initial attention should be at Mexican consulates and that preparations are being made to hire immigration lawyers who can handle these cases.

The president held a call last week with the president-elect about the caravans in the country and said that migrants are no longer reaching the border with the United States. Sheinbaum insisted that the Mexican government has managed to reduce the arrival of migrants in the north of the country by 75% in the last year. The majority of people who make up this latest caravan come from Venezuela, the main origin point of the migration that is currently entering Mexico. Local media reported that there are also citizens from Colombia, Haiti, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, and countries in the Middle East. The migrants left Tapachula on Monday and walked for about 10 hours until they reached Huehuetán, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) to the north.

Upon reaching Huehuetán, the caravan split into two groups. The first continued to Huixtla, while the second stayed in Huehuetán Park to rest. Most fear that when Trump returns to the White House, he will close the border with Mexico and they will be left with no chance of achieving their goal of reaching the United States. “We ask Donald Trump to let us through before he closes everything. He is ruining our dreams and the future of our children. We want them to be well, as that is impossible in our country,” Anilka, a Venezuelan who fled her country due to the crisis sparked by the disputed presidential elections, told Efe news agency.

The caravans have become a controversial phenomenon, a hot potato for the governments of both countries. On the one hand, Trump insists that they represent a danger to his country and has threatened Mexico with 25% tariffs on all its products if the Sheinbaum government fails to stop “the invasion” of migrants and drugs. The president of Mexico, for her part, assured in a call with Trump that the caravans “no longer reach the border with the United States,” thanks to the actions that are being carried out.

Among these, Mexican authorities continue to try to break up large groups of people and move them to other parts of the country, some of them far from Mexico City or the border, as is the case in Guerrero, Michoacán, or Yucatán. Many others are detained in the center of the country and returned to their starting point in Tabasco or Chiapas. Most migrants do not reach the U.S. border. However, entries into Mexico from Chiapas have skyrocketed and shelters are full in the south. From January to August, more than 925,000 people have entered the country illegally, according to official data. The figure is more than double that registered in the same period last year, and many are children aged under 11. “Migratory flows have been reduced not because of a strategy, but because Mexico is detaining a large number of migrants,” Eunice Rendón, coordinator of the organization Agenda Migrante, told this newspaper.

As the days go by, tension and political pressure to contain migrants increases. Civil society organizations denounce the siege of the authorities and the National Institute of Migration (INM), which tries by all means available to prevent migrants from continuing on their journey. Mexican immigration authorities met this Monday with their counterparts in Guatemala in order to work together. At the meeting, the head of the INM, Francisco Garduño, and his counterpart, Danilo Rivera, agreed to exchange information on transit at formal and informal crossings to work toward “orderly migration.”

Since the summer, the U.S. government has allowed people to apply for a humanitarian visa through an application called CBP One, run by the Customs and Border Protection office. The appointment can be made from the northern border or from the states of Chiapas and Tabasco. Migrants, meanwhile, must wait in Mexican territory for an appointment at one of the eight U.S. border posts. However, as asylum applications have increased, wait times have become longer, at least seven or eight months or more. Most of the migrants fear that Trump will eliminate the application and that they will never get their appointment to cross to the other side.

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