More than 3,000 migrants are making their way through Mexico toward the U.S. border in the largest and most organized caravan of the year.
The migrants, mostly Central Americans, South Americans, and Haitians, are taking the 2,500-mile journey to Texas. The group was organized through a QR code that allowed participants to register starting Oct. 15, according to Fox News. Due to the Mexican government banning migrants from hitching rides from truckers, the migrants will have to take the entire journey on foot.
“Tell Biden we are coming,” one migrant named William from El Salvador told the news outlet.
The caravan left Tapachula on the border with Guatemala on Oct. 23.
Within hours of beginning their journey, the migrants were greeted by a wall of Mexican National Guard troops. But the migrants forced their way through the blockade, continuing their journey to the United States.
The caravan is moving north before the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which the Department of Homeland Security intends to bring back by mid-November after Texas and Missouri sued and scored a victory when the Supreme Court ordered the policy to be reinstated in August.
The Trump-era policy requires asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico while they await hearings on their requests for safe haven.
There has been a surge in border crossings, an issue that stretched from the Trump administration into the Biden administration.
Border arrests surged to an all-time high, more than 1.7 million, in fiscal year 2021, which ended in September, federal data show, and the border situation was flung back into the national spotlight in September with a wave of Haitian migrants.
