A group of about 2,000 migrants left Mexico's southern border on Sunday, hoping to reach the north of the country and eventually the United States. The development comes weeks ago US presidential electionswhere immigration was a major issue.
Some migrants, like Venezuelan Joel Zambrano, believe the new administration in the United States could put an end to asylum appointments through an online system called CBP One.
“This is what makes us afraid. They say this may change because they can close the CBP One appointment and all the services that help immigrants,” he said.
A lack of jobs in southern Mexico due to a new wave of foreign arrivals and delays in asylum appointments in the United States have spurred more groups of migrants to leave the region in the past month.
“The situation in my country is very bad, and the president is not doing anything for us,” said Roberto Dominguez, 48, from Honduras. “We spent a week at the border, but getting documents takes time.” “We have to be in Tapachula and we can't leave the city.”
The group that left on Sunday was the third and largest since the beginning of the administration of new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who has not yet made any changes to the immigration policies established by her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Groups of between 800 and 600 migrants left the area earlier in October.
Activist Luis García Villagran estimates that about 40,000 migrants are currently stranded in southern Mexico.
Last month, the Biden administration New regulations announced To strengthen the partial asylum ban Released in June Migrants are at the southern U.S. border, in a move likely to extend a strict immigration policy indefinitely, CBS News' Camilo Montoya Galvez reported. Administration officials have pointed to asylum restrictions as the main reason for the decline in illegal crossings by migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border this year.
Many immigrants who came to the United States through… Care program These measures, designed to reduce illegal border crossings in recent years, are set to lose their legal status by the end of October, since the Biden administration decided not to extend their coverage.
Under the program, about 214,000 Haitians, 117,000 Venezuelans, 111,000 Cubans and 96,000 Nicaraguans have so far arrived in the United States to live and work legally for two years, under an immigration law known as parole. The first group set to begin losing their parole status this month are Venezuelans, who began arriving in the United States through the program in October 2022.
