New Migrant Caravan Clashes with Mexican Feds Before March to U.S.

Caravan
Twitter Screenshot / Reforma

A caravan of thousands of migrants, mostly Haitian and Central Americans, started making their way to Mexico City with the intent of reaching the U.S. border. Migrants clashed with immigration authorities and broke through blockades set in southern Mexico.

Officials estimate between 2,000 to 3,100 people formed the initial caravan over the weekend with additional migrants expected to join along the way, potentially swelling the group’s size to 5,000, Noticieros Televisa reported.

Although the migrants carried a sign which read, “migrants, peace, and justice,” the atmosphere became charged over the weekend when they encountered officers from the National Institute of Migration (INM), blocking a road in Tapachula, Chiapas.

The migrants pushed through lines of INM agents and Mexican federal forces who used batons, shields, and riot gear to stop the group. Activists have recently called out authorities for excessive force. WRadio reported that INM agents beat a child, causing head injuries.

The caravan has since pushed north to reach central Mexico. The development comes weeks after more than 14,000 migrants from Caribbean nations made their way to Del Rio, Texas, rapidly overwhelming the detention and housing capabilities of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Breitbart Texas reported.

Currently, thousands of other migrants wait in Mexico’s southern border region for official travel documents to lawfully move about the country as registered for refugee assistance. Haitians now outnumber Hondurans in the number of applications submitted requesting refuge in Mexico, El Diario del Sur reported.

At the end of September, about 31,884 Hondurans submitted refugee applications in Mexico, while Haitians had submitted about 26,007, figures from Mexico’s government revealed. By mid-October, the number of applications from Haitians reached 33,000, outpacing the 32,000 from Hondurans.

Editor’s Note: Breitbart Texas traveled to the Mexican States of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, and Nuevo León to recruit citizen journalists willing to risk their lives and expose the cartels silencing their communities.  The writers would face certain death at the hands of the various cartels that operate in those areas including the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas if a pseudonym were not used. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles are published in both English and in their original Spanish. This article was written by “T.M. Mendoza ” from Sonora. 

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