Another 10,000+ Caravan Hits Mexico and Requests Asylum

As Congress continues to feud over the construction of a border wall, another Central American caravan of 10,000-plus migrants entered Mexico and intends to reach the U.S.

The caravan, which first departed Honduras on Jan. 15, began as a smaller group of around 2,000 people, WaPo reported. However, the caravan ballooned in size as it continued to travel across Central America. Numerous foreign nationals from Guatemala and El Salvador, eager over the possibility to apply for humanitarian visas in Mexico, joined along the way. . .

Many of the migrants are attracted by a new policy recently enacted by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. The new left-wing president, who has criticized Mexico’s past treatment of migrants, is allowing many of them to apply for humanitarian visas, allowing them to stay in the country legally as they try to gain access into the U.S.

Historically, migrants would reach the border and apply for asylum within the U.S., allowing them to disappear into the country without ever appearing to their immigration court date. The Trump administration has worked to prevent this by pressuring the Mexican government to keep migrants in their country as they wait for their asylum cases to work through the U.S. courts — a policy known as “remain in Mexico.”

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute reported it had processed a total of 10,343 migrants. About 75 percent were from Honduras, with the rest coming from El Salvador, Guatemala, and a small number of Haitians, Nicaraguans, Cubans and Brazilians. (Read more from “Another 10,000+ Caravan Hits Mexico and Requests Asylum” HERE)

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