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Massive Migrant Caravan On Way To US

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

MEXICO CITY/WASHINGTON (Worthy News) – The migration crisis further escalated Friday as members of an 8,000-person migrant caravan were seen clinging to the sides of a train toward the U.S. southern border.

The crowds attempted to make their way toward El Paso, Texas after the White House sent Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

They were hoping to obtain his assistance in slowing the wave of migrants crossing through his country on their way to ours.

Critics said the resulting “Joint Communique” from that conversation revealed that Mexico City has no interest in assisting an administration that won’t secure U.S. borders.

“The two delegations agreed to meet again in Washington in January 2024 to continue to advance our strong partnership on migration management,” said the statement viewed by Worthy News.

Both sides face intense pressure to reach an agreement after past steps like limiting direct travel into Mexico or deporting some migrants failed to stop the influx. President Joe Biden declined to finish the anti-migration border wall his predecessor, Donald J. Trump, had begun building

However, the Biden administration is under pressure to take measures as the latest massive migrant caravan moving through Mexico to the U.S. border is the largest in more than a year. Officials also say more than 730,000 asylum seekers were seen at the southern border since October alone.

MANY DETAINED

The migrants, mainly from Communist-run Cuba, Haiti, and Honduras, set off for the United States on Sunday, walking more than nine miles (14.4 kilometers) from the Mexican southern border city of Tapachula to get to Alvaro Obregón.

This month, as many as 10,000 migrants were arrested daily at the southwest U.S. border, according to official data.

The U.S. has struggled to process thousands of migrants at the border or house them once they reach northern cities.

Mexican industries were stung last week when the U.S. briefly closed two vital Texas railway crossings, arguing border patrol agents had to be reassigned to deal with the surge.

Another non-rail border crossing remained closed in Lukeville, Arizona, and operations were partially suspended in San Diego and Nogales, Arizona.

U.S. officials said those closures were done to reassign officials to help process migrants.

In Mexico, for many migrants fleeing hardships, Christmas Day meant the same as any other day. Reporters saw there were no presents, and Christmas Eve dinner was a sandwich, a bottle of water, and a banana handed out by a local church to migrants in the town of Álvaro Obregón, in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala.

TROUBLED CHRISTMAS

Migrants spent Christmas night sleeping on a scrap of cardboard or plastic stretched out under an awning or tent or the bare ground, witnesses saw.

In the morning, it was waking as usual at 4 a.m. to get an early start and avoid the worst heat, walking to the next town, Huixtla, 20 miles (30 kilometers) away.

Karla Ramírez, a migrant from Honduras traveling with other adults and four children, got to Álvaro Obregón’s exposure that she was too late Sunday to get any of the food being given out by the church.

They had to spend their last money on food.

“It was sad: we have never, ever been in the street before,” Ramírez said. “Our Christmas dinner was some mortadella, butter, and tomato, with a tortilla.”

Mariela Amaya’s seven-year-old son apparently didn’t understand why they had to spend Christmas this way. Amaya, also from Honduras, tugged the hand of her tired, recalcitrant son as they walked.

“They don’t understand why we must do this to get a better life,” she said. “Nor did the governments of Mexico and the United States; why can’t they help us? We need their help.”