Irino Mujica, an activist for the Pueblo Seine Fronteras NGO that accompanies illegal immigrants, said another migrant caravan set off in Mexico on Saturday towards the United States.
The group of about 2,000 asylum seekers is largely made up of citizens of Central American countries, but there are also Haitians and immigrants from African countries.
According to Mujica, despite the intervention of the Mexican immigration office and security forces, they were able to head north from the southern city of Tapachula. As far as the AP is aware, there were also minor clashes between the army and the migrants, yet the convoy continued its journey uninterruptedly.
The migrant caravan’s first goal is to reach Mexico City, but many have said they want to continue their journey to the United States.
“We will fight, and then we will see if we reach the northern border,” Nicaraguan citizen Antonio Lopez told dpa.
Tens of thousands of migrants from Honduras, Haiti and El Salvador are in Tapachula waiting to have their asylum or humanitarian visa applications processed, but many have been content with the long wait.
Mexico, under pressure from former US President Donald Trump, will also deploy troops from July 2019 in order to stop migrant caravans. The last time Mexican security forces arrested a group of hundreds of people was in August, also on their way from Tapachula.
US authorities arrested 1.73 million immigrants at the Mexico-US border in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, the highest number in US history. In the previous fiscal year, that number was 458,000.
Most immigrants leave Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
