Massive migrant caravan in Mexico heads toward US

MEXICO CITY

The largest migrant caravan in more than a year is making its way through Mexico to the US border as the two countries search for ways to stem record flows of asylum seekers.

Around 8,000 migrants are en route, making it the largest US-bound caravan since June 2022.

The migrants, reportedly of 24 nationalities, entered through Chiapas state in southeastern Mexico and are heading for Mexico City.

Around 10,000 migrants have been apprehended daily at the southwest border this month, according to border patrol officials.

The approach of the record-size caravan comes as Mexican and US officials have been meeting to discuss the surge in migrant arrivals.

In the 2022 fiscal year, US Customs and Border Patrol apprehended more than 2.2 million migrants at the US-Mexico border.

According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), 2023 has seen the arrival of 2,240,000 migrants, while in 2022, the figure was put at 2,326,711 and at 1,856,332 in 2021.

Amid the upswing, officials from the two countries are set to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the "unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere" and identify ways Mexico and the US can "address border security challenges."

According to a press release issued by the US State Department, the two governments will agree to reopen key ports of entry across the border to alleviate the massive mobilization of migrants.

The US delegation, comprising Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and White House Homeland Security Advisor Liz Sherwood-Randall, will meet with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico.

The CBP said that Mexicans are the most reported nationality crossing the border, with more than 700,000 encounters, followed by Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia.