More than 1,000 migrants have set out together from southern Mexico, but they have no intention of trying to reach the United States.
Instead, their goal is to get to Mexico City, where they hope to expedite their asylum claims and regularize their legal status in this country.
The 1,100-kilometer trek on foot to Mexico City is fraught with difficulty: extreme temperatures, rain, food and water shortages, as well as the constant risk of abuse, extortion and violence.
But staying in Chiapas where there are few job opportunities is not an option, so the migrants — primarily from Cuba, but also from Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil and Haiti — began heading north on Wednesday.
For the past eight years or so, dozens of caravans have set out from Chiapas, the southernmost state in Mexico, with one goal: to cross the northern border and reach the United States.
However, that mindset changed after U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, introducing and enforcing strict immigration policies and discouraging asylum seekers.
Since Trump took office, the migratory flow has dried up. Activists on Mexico’s southern border report a drop of up to 80%, according to the newspaper El País. There used to be camps on the Guatemala side of the Suchiate River where hundreds or thousands of migrants gathered, but the area is virtually empty. The few who cross do so in secret.
The current group is just the second to coalesce in Chiapas since Trump took office and, like the caravan that departed Tapachula in August, leaders say they aren’t planning to make their way to the U.S.
When questioned by a reporter from El País, a 37-year-old Cuban woman scoffed at the notion of traveling to the U.S.
“Why would I want to go to the United States?” responded Esther López. “They hate us there! All I want is to get to Mexico City where my friend is waiting for me so I can make a life for myself there.”
Vladimir Ortiz Cassola, another Cuban immigrant, was of the same opinion.
“The United States isn’t on my mind,” he told CNN en Español. “We want to regularize our status here … nothing more than that, so we can work and contribute to this nation.”
But in addition to the lack of jobs in Tapachula, the local office of the Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) is seen as little more than a bureaucratic roadblock.
Migrants in the caravan reported waits of up to 10 months with little to show for it and work is hard to find without legal documentation. Others said people posing as lawyers help with the processing, but for exorbitant fees. Still others spoke of being scammed by these “lawyers.”
Before departing for Mexico City, a spokesman for the migrants spoke of the dire situation they face: “We’re leaving Tapachula because we’re trapped here. They won’t give us papers to live formally, and to obtain them we have to pay up to 20,000 pesos (US $1,080).”
On occasion, Mexican authorities have allowed migrant caravans to proceed for a few days before offering to help with their documents or provide transportation.
With reports from The Associated Press, El País and CNN en Español
