Hundreds of migrants from around a dozen countries left Mexico’s southern border on foot Sunday. Some members of the group hope to reach the U.S. border before the November presidential election. They are concerned that if former President Donald Trump wins, he’ll follow through on a promise to close the border to asylum-seekers.
“We are running the risk that permits [to cross the border] might be blocked,” says Miguel Salazar, a migrant from El Salvador. He fears that a new Trump administration might stop granting appointments to migrants through CBP One. That’s an app asylum-seekers use to enter the United States legally. The app helps them get appointments at U.S. border posts, where they make their cases to officials.
The app works only when travelers reach Mexico City or states in northern Mexico.
“Everyone wants to use that route,” says Salazar of the app.
The group left Sunday from the southern Mexican town of Ciudad Hidalgo. The town lies next to a river that marks Mexico’s border with Guatemala.
Some say they had waited in Ciudad Hidalgo for weeks. They were hoping for permits to continue to towns farther north. Often, such travelers have already traveled hundreds of miles through rough terrain such as the Darién Gap at the Colombia-Panama border.
Migrants trying to pass through Mexico in recent years have often organized large groups. Traveling in numbers can help reduce the risk of being attacked by gangs or stopped by Mexican immigration officials. But the caravans tend to break up in southern Mexico, as people tire after walking for hundreds of miles.
Recently, Mexico has made it more difficult for migrants to reach the U.S. border on buses and trains.
Immigration officers rarely award travel permits to those who enter the country without visas. Officers have detained thousands of people at checkpoints in the center and north of Mexico and bused them back to towns deep in the south of the country.
Oswaldo Reyna, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant, crossed from Guatemala into Mexico 45 days ago. He waited in Ciudad Hidalgo to join a new caravan. He heard about the group on social media.
“We are not delinquents,” he says. “We are hard-working people who have left our country to get ahead in life, because in our homeland we are suffering from many needs.”
Pray for God’s provision for those who are seeking safety and stability. Ask God to help officials make wise decisions about how to care for both citizens and migrants in need.
