Migrant Caravan Headed to USA Grows to 12K

An organizer of the potentially largest-yet migrant caravan says the group headed to the United States grew to approximately 12,000. The group crossed the border from Guatemala to Mexico over the weekend and could grow to as many as 15,000, leaders estimate. Mexico is offering work visas to the members of the caravan.

Luis Villigran, the leader of the caravan making its way to the U.S. southern border, told Fox News their ranks have swelled to approximately 12,000 migrants. He added that the Government of Mexico is offering work visas, which will also allow free movement within the nation as the migrants head north.

Over the weekend, Mexican police and immigration officials allowed the then nearly 10,000-strong migrant caravan to cross the border from Guatemala into Tapachula, Mexico, Breitbart Texas reported. The group began moving northward without resistance from the Mexican authorities.

The migrants are counting on President Joe Biden to cancel the Title 42 coronavirus protection protocol put in place during the Trump administration.

“He promised the Haitian community he will help them,” migrants told Fox News on Friday. “He will recall Title 42. He will help us have real asylum.”

“Now we need him to keep his promise,” a Haitian migrant stated.

Colombian migrant Robinson Reyes told the BBC they timed their departure from Mexico’s southern region to coincide with the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. “That’s why we went out today,” he told the British news outlet. “God willing, they can talk and resolve this”.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to meet with many of the regional leaders on Friday and sign a declaration relating to the mass irregular migration crisis. Biden Administration officials reportedly said the president will offer a “bold” new plan designed to share responsibility and “economic support for the countries that have been most impacted by refugees and migration.”

Mexic0’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will not be attending the summit or the meeting with President Biden after the White House refused to allow Venezuela and Cuba to participate. A Mexican official will reportedly sign the agreement on their president’s behalf.

By Tuesday, the growing caravan reached the Mexican town of Huixtla, Chiapas, the Associated Press reported. This is approximately 25 miles from where they departed on Monday.

The Mexican asylum agency is reportedly overwhelmed with the increase in migrants in their nation. The AP reported the agency processed more than 130,000 asylum requests in 2021 — triple the previous year. This year the numbers spiked another 20 percent over the 2021 level.

The Biden Administration is in the process of appealing a court order stopping the administration from canceling the Title 42 protocol. In May, open border activists lobbied the administration to bring Title 42 to an end, Breitbart reported.

A combination of official and unofficial numbers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection sources show that more than 600,000 migrants crossed the U.S. border from Mexico since March 1. Ending Title 42 could bring approximately 18,000 illegal border crossers per day to the border, according to a DHS report reviewed by Breitbart.