A group of around 300 migrants began a northward journey from Tapachula, Chiapas, on Wednesday, a day after a prominent migrant rights advocate was arrested in the southern city.
Migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and African and Central American countries departed Tapachula on foot early Wednesday, according to a report by the newspaper El Universal. Men, women and children are part of the group.
Located about 30 kilometers north of the Mexico-Guatemala border, Tapachula is the first destination in Mexico for many migrants and a common departure point for migrant caravans.
Unlike many previous migrant caravans, the group of foreigners who began their journey on Wednesday is not aiming to reach the Mexico-United States border, where security has increased and seeking asylum has become extremely difficult since U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term on Jan. 20.
Instead, their goal is to reach Mexico City “without being detained,” El Universal reported.
The migrants will presumably seek work and other opportunities in the capital. They had complained about the lack of employment opportunities in Tapachula and difficulties in regularizing their presence in Mexico.
Al menos 300 migrantes de diferentes nacionalidades buscan salir de Tapachula, Chiapas, en caravana; argumentan que los trámites de la Comisión Nacional de Ayuda a Refugiados son muy lentos.
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— NMás (@nmas) August 6, 2025
“To migrate is not a crime,” read a banner carried by migrants as they departed Tapachula. They were accompanied by National Guard personnel, police and National Immigration Institute (INM) officials.
The migrants will reportedly spend their first night on the road in Álvaro Obregón, a small town about 12 kilometers north of Tapachula.
According to former INM chief Francisco Garduño, 129 migrant caravans formed in Mexico and traveled through the country during the 2018-24 presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador and in the first few months of the current administration. In recent years, large numbers of people from Central America, and further afield, have come to Mexico after fleeing their countries of origin for a range of reasons, including violence, poverty and climate change.
The goal of most migrants has been to reach the United States, but an increasing number of such people have chosen to stay in Mexico, or are finding it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to enter the U.S. now that Trump is back in the White House. For those who left Tapachula on Wednesday, “the American dream is over,” the newspaper Excélsior reported.
Is Luis García Villagrán a migrant rights advocate or a criminal?
The migrant caravan that departed Tapachula on Wednesday is called “Éxodo de la Justicia” (Exodus of Justice), mainly because its members are reportedly calling for justice for Luis Rey García Villagrán, who was arrested in Tapachula on Tuesday.
García, a migrant rights activist who has led previous migrant caravans, was detained “for alleged crimes related to his work with migrants,” according to an Associated Press report that cited an unnamed federal official.
Citing “security sources,” the newspaper La Jornada reported that he is accused of organized crime and human trafficking.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that García — founder of an organization called the Center for Human Dignity — “is not an activist” and that a warrant for his arrest was issued years ago.
“He faces an accusation of human trafficking. The arrest warrant was issued years ago and is now being enforced,” she said.
El Universal reported that the migrants who departed Tapachula on Wednesday “expressed their sadness” over the arrest of García, described as the “main promoter” of the current caravan.
Heyman Vázquez Medina, a priest and activist who led the migrants in prayer before their departure, told Excélsior that the migrants who make up the caravan are demanding the release of García.
He said that García was detained unjustly, asserting that he hadn’t committed any crime and that his only “mistake” was to denounce those who extort and exploit migrants.
Vázquez claimed that the arrest of García was retaliation for his denunciation of the alleged corruption, abuses and collusion with organized crime of the INM, National Guard, police forces and the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR).
“The government colludes with organized crime,” the priest told Excélsior.
AP reported that in 2024, “some migrants accused García Villagran of extortion and state prosecutors opened an investigation.”
“The Chiapas state prosecutor’s office has not said where that case stands,” the news agency said, adding that “Mexican authorities have arrested immigration activists in the past.”
In 1997, García was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison after he was convicted of kidnapping and criminal association. In 2021, he told Mexico News Daily that he was wrongfully accused.
“I was in prison for 12 years here in Mexico, accused of a crime that I didn’t commit. There were a lot of organizations that helped me: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Christian Action for the Abolition of Torture and in Mexico, the Center of Human Rights Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, until they finally declared me a prisoner of conscience and I won my freedom. That motivated me to help other people. God motivates me to do this. I found God at university,” García told MND.
La Jornada reported that he has been accused of “having no interest” in the human rights of migrants as he “exposes them to exhausting and dangerous journeys and even confronts them with crime groups or with authorities.”
The newspaper also said that García has been accused of charging migrants up to US $2,000 to “speed up” bureaucratic procedures at the INM and COMAR.
With reports from El Universal, Excélsior, La Jornada, Infobae and AP
