Hundreds of migrants leave southern Mexico as Trump vows deportations if he returns to power

Hundreds of migrants from a dozen countries called through social networks left the southern Mexican border on foot on Sunday with the intention of reaching the United States, a country immersed in an intense electoral campaign in which Republican Donald Trump has promised mass deportations if he returns to the presidency.

The formation of the new group coincided with US President Joe Biden’s announcement that he was withdrawing from the election race. The migrants were unaware of the news, but many of them said their main concern was reaching the border before the elections, fear of border closure in the event of a possible Trump victory.

“It is one of the most critical points because according to the latest debate… there is a risk that they are going to block our permit,” said Salvadoran Miguel Salazar in reference to CBP One, the application promoted by the Biden administration to request asylum in the United States and which he considered could be suspended with a victory by the Republican.

“Everyone wants to use that legal route,” added the 37-year-old man who left his wife and two children in El Salvador.

Oswaldo Reyna, a 55-year-old Cuban who left the island 45 days ago, crossed the Suchiate River on Sunday morning — the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico — to join the group announced on social media a couple of weeks ago.

Reyna criticized the comments of Trump who criminalizes migrants and insists that they want to “invade” the United States.

“We are not criminals, we are not thieves,” the Cuban stressed. “We are… good people who left our countries to be able to get ahead because in our countries we are suffering from a thousand needs.”

In this case, no activists accompanied the foreigners who hoped that when they reached Tapachula, the main city on the southern border, more people would join them.

The group included several hundred migrants who had been stranded for weeks by the river in an improvised camp waiting to be transferred to other cities in the country by the National Migration Institute, which usually moves them from that area to process their requests at an immigration office.

The formation of groups or caravans of migrants moving through southern Mexico is something common in recent years and usually coincides with moments when the migration issue is on the regional agenda. Usually, the Mexican authorities let them advance until the group gets tired and ends up dissolving without leaving the south of the country.

Since the start of the US election campaign, migration has been a key issue given the record flow of people arriving in the country in 2023.

But this weekend, Trump raised the tension by mocking how he got everything he wanted from Mexico when he was president, threatening to impose tariffs if the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not stop the passage of migrants. He also launched insults that some understood were directed at former foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard.

“I regret the foul language of former President Trump,” said the future president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on her X account. “For me (Ebrard) is one of the best public servants in Mexico and he will be a great secretary of economy for our country, which no one should forget, is free and sovereign.”

The former foreign minister, for his part, indicated on the same network that “when you are insulted during a campaign, as former President Trump has just done, there is always an electoral purpose: to gain followers.”

“I will never accept a candidate’s rating from abroad. I am not intimidated by it. I will defend Mexico’s interests with all dignity and firmness,” he added.

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