Mexican Cops Step Aside as New Migrant ‘Poverty’ Caravan Moves North

Mexican authorities stood down any efforts to contain a new migrant caravan that embarked this week from the southern part of Mexico. Authorities are currently escorting the groups and providing crowd control.

Calling themselves the Poverty Exodus (Exodo de la Pobreza), the caravan, which is made up of more than 6,000 migrants, left the city of Tapachula, Chiapas, on Christmas Eve. The caravan is making its way north. In various parts of the journey, the migrants waved a banner with the caravan’s name and carried a white cross. Members of the group made public claims that their goal was to reach the United States for economic reasons.

Some migrants told El Pais newspaper that their goal was to stay in the U.S. for 5-7 years and return home. The migrants demanded that U.S. President Joe Biden help them along their journey.

By Wednesday night, the group reached the town of Mapastepec, Chiapas, about 60 miles (100 km) northwest of the Mexico-Guatemala border. There, they camped for the night and continued their journey on Thursday early morning, high-ranking officials with Mexico’s National Migration Institute revealed to Breitbart Texas.

During various parts of the journey, Mexico’s National Guard members escorted the caravan and helped with crowd control and traffic control as the group moved north toward Mexico City. INM officials revealed to Breitbart Texas that they had been told to accompany the caravan to avoid issues but not to try to detain or interfere with the movement. Officials claim that once the caravan reaches Mexico City, it will likely disband as migrants will find their own means of transportation.

As Breitbart Texas reported, Mexico City has seen a dramatic influx of migrants in recent months, rapidly overfilling shelters and immigration stations, leading to thousands of them sleeping on the streets. An INM official told Breitbart Texas that Mexico City is not only a transportation hub from where migrants can take buses and airplanes north towards the U.S. border, but it is also one of the cities that asylum seekers need to be in to use the CBP One app to schedule an appointment.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Williams Cortez from Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project contributed to this report.