Migrant Caravan Pushes North With Three Mexican Federal Police Units In Tow
Members of the massive migrant caravan heading to the United States from Honduras have breached the Mexican border and continued to push north toward their final destination, according to US News. Mexican authorities tried to stop the caravan at the border on a key bridge that extends over the Suchiate River separating Mexico and Guatemala. Rather than allowing a mass entry, authorities instead allowed some small groups to enter for asylum processing, granting 45-day visitor permits to a few more members of the caravan.
On Saturday, the migrants gave up trying to enter Mexico through standardized immigration processes as things were progressing too slowly, and many believed they were simply being stymied by Mexican authorities. This morning, about 2,000 of the migrants swam or rafted across the river and re-formed en masse on the Mexican side at a park in the border town of Ciudad Hidalgo. They voted by show of hands to continue their march north en masse. They then marched to the bridge and urged those still on it to join them, vowing to continue north.
As the caravan re-f0rmed, its numbers have swelled to over 5,000 members as they continue north. Many of the caravan’s newcomers are actually members of a previous caravan, who had been stopped at the Mexican border last year.
Three federal police units are escorting the migrant caravan north as they head for Tapachula, and a police helicopter has been dispatched to monitor the caravan from overhead. There has yet to be a renewed commitment from Mexican officials to try to stop the caravan before it reaches the United States border.
The caravan will next reach the small town of Frontera Hidalgo. Municipal police officers are standing by, though people in the town seem to be sympathetic to the caravan. Some have prepared tubs full of plastic bags of water for the migrants to take as they travel through. Temperatures in Frontera Hidalgo today are pushing toward 90 degrees.
“The instructions are to treat them kindly,” city police officer Luis Fernando Mejia explains. “They are human beings.”
The United States has recently increased pressure on the Mexican government to halt the caravan before it reaches the Mexico-U.S. border. President Trump has threatened to deploy the United States military to enact a complete border closure if the migrant caravan is not stopped.
The caravan, which began with just over 100 members in Honduras, has grown to over 5,000 strong as they march north. That number is likely to at least double before the caravan reaches the United States border.
