A group of about 2,000 migrants left Mexico’s southern border on Sunday in hopes of reaching the north of the country and, ultimately, the United States. The development comes weeks before the American presidential electionin which immigration has been a key issue.
Some migrants, like Venezuelan Joel Zambrano, believe a new U.S. administration could end asylum appointments through an online system called CBP One.
“That’s what scares us. They’re saying this could change because they could close both the CBP One appointment and all the services that help migrants,” he said.
A lack of jobs in southern Mexico due to a new wave of foreigners and a delay in asylum applications in the United States have motivated more groups of migrants to leave the region over the past month.
“The situation in my country is very bad, the president does nothing for us. We spent a week near the border, but getting documents takes time,” said Honduran Roberto Domínguez, 48. “The documents we receive are only for we have to be in Tapachula and we cannot leave the city.
The group leaving Sunday was the third and largest since the start of the administration of new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who so far has made no changes to the immigration policies established by her predecessor, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Groups of 800 and 600 migrants left the region in early October.
Activist Luis García Villagrán estimates that around 40,000 migrants are currently stranded in southern Mexico.
Last month, the Biden administration announced new regulations to consolidate the partial ban on asylum it was adopted in June at the U.S. southern border, in a move that will likely extend the strict immigration policy indefinitely, CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez reported. Administration officials have cited asylum restrictions as the main reason for the decline in illegal migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border this year.
Many migrants who arrived in the United States via a sponsorship program designed to reduce illegal border crossings in recent years, are expected to lose their legal status by the end of October, since the Biden administration has decided not to expand 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 United States to live and work legally for two years, under an immigration law known as parole. The first group expected to begin losing their parole status this month are Venezuelans, who began arriving in the United States under the program in October 2022.
