A new migrant caravan has formed in southern Mexico and its members are reportedly aiming to make it to the U.S. border before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office.
A roughly 1,500-person strong caravan made of mostly Central and South American migrants formed around Tapachula, Mexico several days ago and is making its way north, according to Fox 26 Houston. Fearful that they won’t be able to enter the U.S. under the upcoming administration, many of the migrants have confirmed that they hope to cross the southern border before Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20.
“It is going to be more difficult, that’s why we are going in hopes of getting an appointment quicker so we are able to cross before [Trump] takes office,” said Yotzeli Peña, a 23-year-old Venezuelan national, according to the Associated Press. “That would be easier.”
Peña is far from the first migrant to express a lack of enthusiasm for the president-elect.
Days before the Nov. 5 presidential election, migrants congregating in Tapachula — a city in southern Mexico that has served as a holding station of sorts for incoming migrants — expressed public support for Vice President Kamala Harris and disdain for Trump.
“I love Kamala Harris,” a Venezuelan man said, with hundreds of other migrants beside him in both directions along a highway. “Donald Trump, no,” the man continued, and reportedly moved his thumb across his neck to simulate a cutting motion.
“We do not like Donald Trump, because he don’t like us,” one Ghanaian national said at the time, and he added that Harris was his preferred option for president.
Earlier in November, top Department of Homeland Security officials reportedly held a virtual meeting and discussed the possibility of a Trump victory, and the likelihood of a last-minute migrant surge at the border. Those officials had mentioned that Border Patrol and other immigration enforcement employees needed to be prepared for such an event.
Since Trump’s victory, smugglers have reportedly been urging migrants to move quickly to the U.S. before the new administration comes into power.
“There were four WhatsApp groups in which hundreds of migrants coordinated their departure on U.S. election day,” a Mexican migrant advocate who helps organize caravans in Tapachula said to the Wall Street Journal. “As soon as Trump’s victory became clear, messages spreading fear began to appear.”
Trump — who already established himself as an immigration hardliner during his first term in office — has pledged to continue building the U.S.-Mexico border wall, revive the Remain in Mexico program, hire more Border Patrol agents and embark on the largest deportation program in American history. The president-elect has also vowed to put an end to birthright citizenship for those born on U.S. soil by illegal migrant parents.
Despite not sharing the same ideological approach to immigration enforcement as her soon-to-be American counterpart, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Thursday announced that her administration is prepared to accept Mexican nationals deported back home en masse.
“In the event of deportations, we will receive Mexicans, and we have a plan for that,” she said during a press conference in Mexico City. “However, we will work beforehand to show that our nationals who are on the other side of the border do not have to be deported, as they actually benefit the U.S. economy.”
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