Weeks Before US Election, 2K Migrants Depart for Border

Group left southern Mexico, where an estimated 40K are stranded
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 22, 2024 10:35 AM CDT
Weeks Before US Election, 2K Migrants Depart for Border
Migrants wait to be processed by US Customs and Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande and entering the US from Mexico, in this Oct. 19, 2023, file photo in Eagle Pass, Texas.   (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

A group of about 2,000 migrants left Mexico's southern border on Sunday, hoping to reach the country's north and ultimately the United States. The development comes weeks before the US presidential election, in which immigration has been a heated issue. Some migrants, like Venezuelan Joel Zambrano, believe a new administration in the US could put an end to asylum appointments through an online system called CBP One, reports the AP. "That is what makes us fearful. They say this could change because they could both close the CBP One appointment and all the services that are helping migrants," he says.

Both the lack of jobs in Mexico's south due to a new wave of incoming foreigners and a delay in asylum appointments in the US have motivated more groups of migrants to leave the region in the past month. "The situation in my country is very bad; the president doesn't do anything for us. We spent a week by the border, but getting documents takes time," says Honduran Roberto Dominguez, 48. "The documents we get are only for us to be in Tapachula [Mexico], and we cannot leave the city."

The group leaving Sunday was the third and the largest since the beginning of the administration of new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who so far has made no changes in immigration policies established by her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Groups of 800 and 600 migrants left the region earlier in October. Activist Luis Garcia Villagran estimates about 40,000 migrants are currently stranded in southern Mexico. (More US-Mexico border stories.)

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