Central American migrant caravans
[11] The causes of the migration, as well as the proper way to settle or deport the migrants themselves, remains a source of political debate within the U.S. Drought and crop failure in the Central American dry corridor and climate change in Honduras have been factors in the formation of the caravans.
[21] In mid-April, 500 migrants continued northward from Mexico City—the caravan's last official stop—toward Tijuana, in separate groups riding atop freight train cars.
[23] On 29 April 2018, after traveling 2,500 miles (4,000 km) across Mexico, the migrants' caravan came to an end in Tijuana, at the Mexico–United States border at Friendship Park.
[26] United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the caravan "a deliberate attempt to undermine our laws and overwhelm our system".
[27] American aid worker Scott Warren with the organization No More Deaths was arrested on 12 May on charges of illegally harboring people in the country, hours after releasing a report accusing the U.S. Border Patrol of tampering with water sources for migrants crossing the Arizona desert.
[33] Bartolo Fuentes, a former Honduran congressman and one of the march coordinators, stated that the goal of the caravan was to find safety in numbers as it traveled north.
Irineo Mujico, the director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, did not himself recommend another caravan to the United States, instead advising its members to seek asylum in Mexico.
[45] On 20 October, about 2,000 migrants who had crossed the Suchiate River and entered Ciudad Hidalgo decided to rebuild the caravan to continue their trek to the United States.
[46] A force of 700 Federal Police officers, mostly women, formed a human barricade on the Suchiate–Tapachula highway, but withdrew as the 5,000-strong caravan of migrants came within 200 meters (660 ft).
[49] Mujica has since claimed that he and Pueblo Sin Fronteras were initially opposed to the timing of this migrant caravan, because they believed it would be used to build anti-immigration sentiment during the 2018 US midterm election.
Also on 22 October, President Donald Trump said the U.S. would begin curtailing tens of millions of dollars in aid to three Central American nations, because they did not stop the caravan.
[52] On 26 October, when the caravan was in the Arriaga Municipality of the state of Chiapas, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto unveiled his program entitled "Estás en tu casa" ("You are at home").
[53] This initiative allows caravan migrants meeting certain criteria to receive benefits and begin to normalize their immigration status in Mexico.
Migrants who follow Mexican laws and are granted refugee status will, according to the plan, be entitled to temporary work permits and IDs, medical attention, housing in local establishments, and schooling for children.
"- Kirk Semple and Elisabeth Malkin for The New York Times, 31 October 2018[56] "...at least 100 were "kidnapped" (exhausted walkers were lured into vehicles) in the state of Puebla and allegedly handed over to the Zetas gang..."[57]Some scientists contend that the impact of climate change is causing crop failures and exacerbating poverty in Central America, thereby creating what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called "climate refugees.
[95] On November 23, mayor of Tijuana Juan Manuel Gastélum declared a "humanitarian crisis" in response to the large number of migrants in the city.
Frustrated by the slow pace of asylum application processing (approximately 60 per day) and the dire living conditions in their tent cities, they attempted to bypass the Mexican Federal Police to reach the border wall when a commotion occurred.
[104][105][106] Disinformation was promoted by Trump and supporters including the claim that there were "criminals and unknown Middle Easterners" in the caravan, despite the lack of any publicized evidence for this charge.
[108]The president of Honduras at the time, Juan Orlando Hernández, was a member of the right-wing National party[109] and an opponent of the Venezuelan government led by Nicolás Maduro.
[110] The Twitter account of the Department of Homeland Security "confirmed" that within the caravan there were people who are "gang members or have significant criminal histories," but did not offer any evidence of ties.
NRATV alleged that "a bevy of left-wing groups" were working with George Soros and the Venezuelan government "to try to influence the 2018 midterms by sending Honduran migrants north in the thousands".
[112][113] Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said: "Obviously, we have to help because Central American migrants pass through our territory and we have to bring order to this migration, make sure it's legal.
[118] On January 13, just one week prior to the Joe Biden's presidential inauguration, more than 3,000 people departed Honduras and El Salvador for the United States.
[119] On January 16, Guatemala and Mexico deployed the military to their borders, in an attempt to stop the migrant caravan from transiting through their countries on the way to the United States.
[122][123] From June 2022, up to 15,000 migrants, mostly from Central America and Venezuela, started to set out from the southern Mexico city of Tapachula in a caravan bound to the United States.
