Tapachula (Mexico), Jul 21 (EFE).- A new caravan made up of some 3,000 migrants from Central America, South America and Africa left the Mexican town of Ciudad Hidalgo, in the state of Chiapas, practically on the border between Mexico and Guatemala, on Sunday to try to cross the entire country and advance to the United States.
The caravan is setting out amid the commotion generated this week among migrants by the nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican Party candidate for the November presidential elections in the United States and his threats of mass deportations of migrants who enter illegally and of a tougher immigration policy if he becomes president for a second time.
According to activists, this contingent is the largest in recent months and is mostly made up of families with children in their arms and on foot who are moving slowly and intend to travel this first day some 40 kilometers from Ciudad Hidalgo to the city of Tapachula, where they will rest this afternoon-evening to resume their walk early Monday morning.
A migrant from Honduras, Carlos Izaguirre, considered that if Trump becomes president, he will carry out mass deportations because the current president, Joe Biden, opened the border and there is a lot of crime in the United States.
“When Donald Trump is president, there will be millions of deportations to Central America. It affects us because we have children and families. Thank God the economic aid and remittances we send help our families because we are not just Central American, South American and Mexican migrants. There are nearly 40 million Mexicans living in the United States,” Izaguirre told EFE.
The caravan is one of several that migrants are joining four months before the elections in the United States, where irregular migration has not stopped.
According to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), some 324,000 citizens from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador arrived at the southern border of the United States in 2023.
Migration in Mexico has grown significantly since 2018, when caravans with thousands of migrants, mostly Central Americans, began to enter with the aim of crossing the country to reach the United States. The arrival of migrants has continued in recent years despite the pandemic and the restrictions imposed by countries in the region.
Coming to the United States to work
Also traveling in the contingent is Peruvian migrant Franco, who emphasized that his only goal is to reach the United States to work, earn money and be able to help his family in his country.
The foreigner, who is carrying a suitcase with his belongings, considered Trump’s speech to be very wrong.
“He (Trump) is wrong because he does not allow migrants to move forward who are struggling, sweating and overcoming various obstacles and have to support migrants. No one is a criminal, everyone has a purpose in this life. There are people here who know values, who know how to respect, who want to get ahead, who work day after day, who have always earned their money through the sweat of their work,” the Peruvian told EFE.
Meanwhile, Colombian migrant Alberto Lizarazo said that the people traveling in this caravan are human beings and the future of that country.
“He’s a good president, I admire him, but he’s going crazy,” said Lizarazo, who is about 60 years old and walks with the help of a walker because he fell in the Darien jungle. However, he has not lost hope of being able to get to the United States to work.
Last Friday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that he will send a letter to Trump, former President of the United States (2017-2021), about migration and the border between the two countries because, in his opinion, he is not well informed.
The letter, which will be sent next week, will also address “the importance of maintaining economic integration” between Mexico, the United States and Canada, since “closing the border does not solve anything.”
On Thursday, Trump warned of a “migrant invasion” and said he would close the border with Mexico on the first day of his hypothetical second term.
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2024-07-22 16:45:48
