Group of 2,000 migrants advance through southern Mexico in hopes of reaching US

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — A group of 2,000 migrants from dozens of countries set out on foot Tuesday through southern Mexico as they attempt to reach the United States, although recent similar attempts have failed, with groups disbanding after a few days without leaving the region.

Several members of the group said they hoped to reach the US before the November presidential election as they fear that if Donald Trump wins, he will follow through on a promise to close the border to asylum-seekers.

Entire families, women with baby strollers, children accompanied by their parents and adults started walking before sunrise from Tapachula, considered the primary access point to Mexico's southern border, in an effort to avoid the high temperatures. They hoped to advance 40 kilometres (24 miles).

Several hundred migrants left the Suchiate River on Sunday, a natural border with Guatemala and Mexico, encouraged by a call to join a caravan that began to spread on social media a couple of weeks earlier.

The formation of the new caravan comes at the heels of US President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the 2024 race for the White House. While some migrants said they weren't aware of Biden's announcement, many said they feared that if Trump was elected their situation would become more complicated.

“All of us here are hard-working human beings, we're fighters,” said Laydi Sierra, a Venezuelan migrant travelling with dozens of family members. She said she has not been following the U.S. campaign, but wishes that Trump loses “because he wants nothing to do with migrants.”

Almost daily, dozens of people leave Tapachula on their way to the US border. However, the formation of larger groups with hundreds or thousands of people moving through southern Mexico has become regular in the last few years and tends to occur with changes in regional migration policy.

These groups are sometimes led by activists, but also by the migrants themselves who get tired of waiting for any kind of legal documents to allow them to move inside Mexico.

Carlos Pineda, a Salvadorian migrant who left his country because he couldn't find work, said there are about 30 people organising the group, but did not provide further details.

On Tuesday, as they passed by one of the closed migration checkpoints, several migrants chanted, “Yes, we can; yes, we can.”

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