New migrant caravan sets off from southern Mexico border as Obrador-Biden begin talks

A new migrant caravan left the southern part of the Mexican city of Tapachula on Thursday and started to move towards the north during the time when the President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador met with the US President Joe Biden in Washington to discuss immigration issues and other concerns. President López Obrador believes that the latest movement of the immigrants has sparked an urgency to discuss the region’s migration with Biden, The Washington Post reported.  

As per the report, the recently attempted migrant caravan has nearly 2,000 immigrants, largely from Central America and Haiti. The migrants exited the southern Mexico border, carrying their belongings in little knapsacks or packages on their heads with small children riding on the shoulders of their parents or in prams.  

Among the immigrants in the attempted caravan, a Honduran refugee named Alex Leyva claimed he was making his second try to move towards the north in a caravan. As per The Washington Post, Levya stated that he had traveled with another group for the first time on October 23, but as he became ill, he had to pull out. He informed that the Mexican immigration officials sent him to Tapachula, where he had previously gone through the process of requesting refuge in Mexico. In the meantime, as the immigrants proceeded toward the city's boundaries, local police had maintained traffic, but officials made no initiative to stop them from moving forward.  

Migrants demanding valid documents to have access for traveling across Mexico

Furthermore, Luis Garca Villagran of the Center for Human Dignity stated that the immigrants are seeking valid documents which would allow them to travel across Mexico. To ease strain at the US border, the Mexican administration has relied on a policy of limiting immigrants in the nation's southernmost regions. Villagran went on to say that even those immigrants who have already gotten humanitarian visas that enable them to move in Mexico were stopped by immigration officers and deported back to Tapachula.  

Immigrants held near the Guatemalan border in Tapachula have grown increasingly angry with the delayed processing of their asylum applications. They express dissatisfaction with their inability to obtain jobs that will allow them to support their family which has instigated such movement from south to north, The Washington Post reported.  

In addition to this, one of López Obrador's top concerns for Thursday's North America Leaders' Summit was tackling the immigration crisis in the region. He has urged the Biden administration to engage in investing in the extension of a tree-planting program that compensates farmers for growing specific types of trees on their property. According to him, the money will permit the poorest people in the rural area to stay on their property rather than being forced to leave and migrate due to economic pressures. 

Need for new camps

Meanwhile, as per AP, recently a dismal camp for migrants wanting to ask for asylum in the United States was raided by roughly 250 police officers and city personnel under the US policy, in which the migrants were given the option of registering for credentials or leaving. 

The camps, which are crammed with small children, are the result of the US policies that require immigrants to stay in Mexico for U.S. immigration court hearings or will prevent them from obtaining refuge under pandemic-related public health authority. Uncertainty over US asylum procedures has aided the growth of immigrant communities in Mexican border cities, resulting in the need for new camps. 

(Image: AP)