A new migrant “caravan” departed the city of San Pedro Sula in Honduras on Wednesday, hoping to reach the United States in the coming weeks.
CBS News has reported that some in Central America have promoted the idea of a new caravan on social media recently. The group had been slated to leave on October 1, but travelers carrying knapsacks and minimal supplies left the staging grounds for the caravan on Wednesday night.
Initial reports indicate that 900 prospective migrants have joined the caravan. The formations have historically grown as the large groups travel through Guatemala and Mexico, although they usually taper off in size before the travelers reach the US-Mexico border.
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The ‘caravan’ phenomenon reached its peak in 2018, when formations of hopeful migrants of up to 10,000 were traveling through Mexico in hopes of reaching the United States. The introduction of the Trump administration’s ‘Stay-in-Mexico’ policy has proved integral to deterring the phenomenon, requiring those who seek asylum in the country to wait in Mexico while their application is processed.
This caravan appears to be the first of its kind since the 2018 rush of caravans, and its timing is rather conspicuous. The migrants may very well arrive in the vicinity of the US-Mexico border near election day, and some may be under the impression that a tentative President-elect Joe Biden would grant them generous residence and asylum privileges.
Illegal immigration has begun to surge in recent weeks and months as an implication of the global coronavirus recession in Mexico and Central America, and the new group represents a potent health risk to those traveling within it, as well as to citizens of Guatemala, Mexico and the United States present where it is intending to travel.
They may very well be right. Biden has pledged not to deport anyone except illegal aliens who commit felonies(other than immigration violations) in the United States. This would represent a destruction of American immigration enforcement, and the caravan migrants seem only to be taking him for his word in assuming they’ll be allowed into the country.
