Thousands of migrants are heading to the US border, rushing to get into the country before a new president takes office
The prospect of Donald Trump returning to the US presidency is pushing migrants to immediately storm the American border. If Trump wins, an iron curtain could come down on the border, blocking access to the American dream. Edition The Telegraph made a report about the "great exodus" of migrants from Latin American countries.
Photo: Viorel Dudau | Dreamstime.com
They walked through the night while the weather was cool, their spirits high despite the dim prospects of staying in the US. A motley crew of 2000 migrants are making their way to the US on foot, trying to get there before Donald Trump's possible return to the White House.
When the sun rose on October 31, the migrants had already walked 90 miles. On Sunday, October 27, they set out from Tapachula, a Mexican city on the border with Guatemala. They had just XNUMX kilometers left to go to reach their promised land: the Mexico-U.S. border. One of the organizers of the trek called it “our exodus.” For many migrants, it is truly a sacred journey, akin to the biblical exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
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Another large group of migrants is planning to leave on November 5, a date deliberately timed to coincide with the US election day, “so that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris know we are coming to them,” as human rights activists say, highlighting the plight of undocumented migrants.
An agreement between the current U.S. administration and the Mexican government had already made it harder for migrants to cross the border. But Trump has made the mass deportation plan a centerpiece of his campaign strategy.
Get to the US before the inauguration of the new president
It takes the column of migrants half an hour to pass under the bridge that crosses the Pacific Highway from Tapachula to Mexico City. By 20:XNUMX a.m., the people, including small children, have walked more than XNUMX kilometers during the night's journey.
They walked in the left lane of the highway, with huge trucks passing them on the right. Some children rode small bicycles, and babies were strapped to their mothers' backs.
The roads off the highway lead into the dangerous country of drug cartels based in the mountains, where gangs fight for control of the cocaine and human trafficking markets. The black canvas of the highway and the cars whizzing by are a safe zone.
The sun has barely broken the horizon, but the humid heat has already set in. The migrants stop for a rest, setting up camp in whatever shade they can find in the village of Ermenegildo Galeana, including the porch of the whitewashed village church and the indoor basketball court.
At midnight they will set off again. Their goal is to reach the United States before Inauguration Day on January 20, because the ominous figure of Trump looms on the horizon.
Iris Mesa, 39, has spent the past two months in Tapachula with her two children, waiting in vain for the country’s complex asylum system to offer her a legal path to the U.S. What Mesa, like millions of other migrants stuck in Mexico, is seeking is an appointment with a U.S. Border Patrol official on the southern border.
The only way to get an appointment is through the CBP One (Customs and Border Protection) app. The app schedules 1450 appointments daily, causing a stir among the millions of migrants in Mexico trying to cross into the U.S. In Chiapas state, which includes Tapachula, the app only schedules 400 appointments per month.
Tired of waiting for an official meeting and fearful of the upcoming elections, Mesa set out for Mexico's northern border with a group of migrants on October 27.
“We were expecting an appointment with border officials, but with the election, that’s unlikely. We’re running out of time. Applications are being suspended or cancelled, but the border will be open for now,” the woman says, as her three-year-old daughter, Taysha, tugs at her mother’s arm for attention. “If Donald Trump is elected again, things will be a lot more complicated.”
Iris Mesa is an educational psychologist. She fled her native Ecuador for Mexico two months ago and began moving north, but Mexican authorities returned her to Tapachula. The Biden-Harris administration has been accused of providing Mexico with astronomical sums (the latest payment was $800 million, according to human rights groups) to keep migrants from across Latin America away from the U.S. border during an election year.
Romal Silva, 38, from Guatemala, is desperate to return to the United States, where he has two teenage children. He was deported in 2018. He admitted to being caught drunk driving, getting a year in prison, being deported from the United States, and now heading north with a convoy of refugees.
"If Donald Trump wins, I will never be able to come back," Romal worries. "That's why I'm trying to get back before the inauguration. I left Guatemala two weeks ago because the American elections are approaching."
Silva, who moved to Boston at age 13, is stuck in no man's land partly through his own fault.
"I made a mistake. I was deported. Now I'm trying to get back. I miss my children very much. I'm worried that under Donald Trump the rules will change a lot and it will be harder to get back to the United States. It's already hard, but at least you can apply and hope to get an appointment with border officials. I need a second chance. My children are growing up in the United States without a father, and I don't think it's fair," Romal laments.
He shows off his tattoos and says that in the US, everyone has them. But in Guatemala, when people look at his tattooed body, they think he is a gang member. This makes Silva's life too dangerous.
Iron Curtain for Migrants – All of Mexico
An estimated half a million illegal migrants cross into Mexico from Guatemala each year across the Suchiate River before heading to Tapachula, a city of 400 and the second largest in Chiapas. Cartels have made their home here, but fear doesn’t stop the migrants. They are eager to leave Chiapas, because every step brings them closer to the U.S. and further from danger.
Leaving the state is no easy task. Mexican authorities do not allow migrants to board local buses heading north.
A number of checkpoints — at least six in a short stretch from Tapachula — are manned by Mexico’s National Guard, which is tasked with ensuring that migrants do not violate the ban on buses. The National Guard, whose officers wear gray military fatigues and carry semiautomatic rifles, was created in 2019 as part of a deal with the United States to keep migrants out of the Guatemalan border.
The border remains porous, but the U.S. is content to let new immigrants stay in southern Mexico. One human rights activist said the whole of Mexico has “become a wall” following Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to build a border wall, a promise that helped him win the election.
The deterrence policy appears to be working, and was used by the Harris campaign to point to a significant decline in illegal border crossings. Earlier this month, the U.S. Border Patrol released new data showing that encounters with illegal migrants crossing the U.S. from Mexico had dropped sharply, from 250 in December 000 to just over 2023 in August 58.
Mexico, at Biden’s request, has set up a series of National Guard checkpoints to detain migrants on their way north and send them back to Tapachula. But there is talk that the barrier could be lifted again if Trump wins and tries to impose tariffs on Mexico.
The CBP One app uses geolocation to confirm that asylum seekers are in Mexico before scheduling a crucial appointment. It’s a lottery that migrants have little chance of winning. Their job, once an appointment is made, is to get to one of eight U.S. border stations for an in-person interview with officials.
But in the convoy north of Tapachula, no one seemed to be expecting to receive an appointment from CBP One. Activists said only 400 appointments a month are reserved for the hundreds of thousands of migrants stranded in Chiapas, with selection largely random, though preference is sometimes given to those who have waited the longest.
Jude Joseph, 40, a Haitian refugee who traveled through Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala to reach Tapachula, said: “If I get through this CBP One and have a chance, I’ll go to the U.S. I don’t know if I’ll have that chance if Donald Trump becomes president. But there are no jobs in Haiti, only gangsters.”
Jude laughed at Trump's suggestion that migrants would "eat cats and dogs" when they came to the US.
"What won't he come up with to win the elections? The Haitian people would never do that," the migrant assures.
Raquel Hernandez, 34, whose right hip ached from long walks, left her native Honduras four months ago, kissing and hugging her three children, ages 16, 10 and 5, who are in the care of their grandparents, goodbye.
"I miss them very much," she says, "but I want a better future for them."
All her belongings were stolen in Tapachula. She was left with nothing, "except optimism," as she says.
"Immigrants are not criminals"
The convoy is well organized, and local officials send medical teams to every stop to check on the sick. Many adults have sore and injured feet, while children suffer from gastrointestinal problems caused by poor nutrition and swimming in dirty water.
Rafael Ventura Carmona, who runs a local human rights group, arrived in Hermenegildo Galeana ahead of the refugee column.
"There haven't been any problems so far. We want to ensure their safety," he says, surveying the huge crowds gathered under the canopy of an outdoor basketball court. Almost every square inch of the court is taken up by migrants resting before the night's journey to the next stop in the town of Pijijiapan.
Back in Tapachula, Luis García Villagrán, the human rights activist organizing the columns, addresses the next group of migrants preparing to leave the city on November 5.
"Immigrants are not criminals; we are working people from different countries. The borders are red because workers are being killed there," he tells the crowd of migrants. "We are marching on the 5th so that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris know we are coming to them."
Villagrán said Tapachula had become too dangerous for migrants, but many were stuck there without public transportation. The only option was to walk.
"The strategy of both Republicans and Democrats is to push the U.S. border to the Mexico-Guatemala border. A month ago, the United States gave Mexico $800 million just to keep immigrants out. Obviously, this is related to the elections."
On the outskirts of Tapachula, in the Viva Mexico suburb, hundreds of migrants wait to board official immigration buses that will take them to the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, the capital of Chiapas state, to ease the migrant congestion in Tapachula.
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Migrants wait, sitting under bushes and trees. Juan Jose Arcila, a 28-year-old Venezuelan, rushes back and forth while waiting for a bus.
"My goal is the United States, God willing," he says. Juan chose Denver, Colorado, as his destination, he says, "because I like the name."
Arcila's belongings are all in a small black backpack, and he rummages through it to find photographs of his wife and two children taken at Christmas last year. His family remains in Venezuela as he continues his journey north.
"It's worth it," he concludes. "Right now, our future is uncertain. I'd like to come before Donald Trump wins. That's what everyone's afraid of."
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