Local media reported that most of the migrants were from Cuba, Haiti and Honduras, but some came from as far away as Bangladesh and India.
Thousands of migrants set off on foot from southern Mexico, trying to reach the border with the United States.
The BBC reports this.
An estimated 7,000 people, mostly from South and Central America, including thousands of children, joined the migrant caravans.
They left days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will discuss ways to curb mass migration with the Mexican president.
Several border crossings have recently been closed due to the influx of migrants.
BREAKING: Another massive caravan is on its way to the US border.
This was only in Tapachula, Mexico: pic.twitter.com/X2ySAo1vU1
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 24, 2023
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said that US President Joe Biden and his Mexican colleague Andrés Manuel López Obrador share concerns about the “dramatic” increase in the number of migrants crossing their shared border.
The number of people apprehended at the U.S. southern border exceeded two million in both fiscal years 2022 and 2023.
In September 2023 alone, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 200,000 migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The latest caravan of migrants set off from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, near the southern border with Guatemala, on Christmas Eve.
His leaders carried a banner that read “Escape from Poverty.”
Local media reported that most of the migrants were from Cuba, Haiti and Honduras, but some came from as far away as Bangladesh and India.
Many said they decided to join the caravans after waiting months for transit permission.
Migrant rights activist Luis Garcia Villagran, who accompanied the caravan, said that for many migrants stuck in Tapachula, joining the mass trek north was a last resort.
“The problem is that the southern border [with Guatemala] is open and 800 to 1,000 people cross it every day. If we don't get out of Tapachula, the city will collapse. We tell the Mexican government that they have left us no choice but to get on the coastal highway and walk as far as we can,” he said.
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The first morning the migrants walked about 15 km after setting off at dawn on December 24.
One Honduran migrant said he left his home country to escape a criminal gang that threatened to kill him.
Jose Santos told Reuters news agency: “I was scared, so I decided to come to Mexico, hoping that I would be allowed to go to the United States.”
On Friday, December 22, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he was ready to work with the United States again to address migration issues.
On Wednesday, December 27, the Mexican leader is scheduled to meet with the US Secretary of State.
Their meeting comes at a time when the surge in immigration is a hot political topic in the US and pressure is growing on President Biden to stem the flow of migrants across the US southern border.
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