Thousands of migrants leave southern Mexico for the U.S. weeks ahead of presidential election
A group of about 2,000 migrants left Mexico's southern border Sunday hoping to reach the country's north and ultimately the United States. The development comes weeks before the U.S. presidential election, in which immigration has been a key issue.
Some migrants, like Venezuelan Joel Zambrano, believe a new administration in the U.S. could put an end to asylum appointments through an online system called CBP One.
"That is what makes us fearful. They say this could change because they could both close the CBP One appointment and all the services that are helping migrants," he said.
Both the lack of jobs in Mexico's south due to a new wave of incoming foreigners and a delay in asylum appointments in the U.S. have motivated more groups of migrants to leave the region in the past month.
"The situation in my country is very bad, the president doesn't do anything for us. We spent a week by the border, but getting documents takes time," said Honduran Roberto Domínguez, 48. "The documents we get are only for us to be in Tapachula and we cannot leave the city."
The group leaving Sunday was the third and the largest since the beginning of the administration of new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who so far has made no changes in immigration policies established by her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Groups of 800 and 600 migrants left the region earlier in October.
Activist Luis García Villagrán estimates about 40,000 migrants are currently stranded in southern Mexico.
Last month, the Biden administration announced new regulations to cement the partial asylum ban it enacted in June at the southern U.S. border, in a move that will likely extend the strict immigration policy indefinitely, CBS News' Camilo Montoya-Galvez reported. Administration officials have cited the asylum restrictions as the primary reason for the drop in illegal crossings by migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border this year.
Many migrants who came to the U.S. through a sponsorship program designed to reduce illegal border crossings in recent years are set to lose their legal statuses 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 come to the U.S. to live and work legally for two years, per an immigration law known as parole. The first group set to begin losing their parole status this month are Venezuelans, who started arriving in the U.S. through the program in October 2022.