Mexican government has offered work visas to members of the migrant caravan

882

CHIAPAS, MEXICO (June 9, 2022).- The organizer of a massive migrant caravan attempting to make its way to the United States says that the Mexican government has offered work visas to migrants, which would allow them to travel freely through the country.

Caravan leader Luis Villagran told the press that Mexican officials have told him it will begin issuing 1,000 temporary work visas a day to the migrants in the caravan — which are estimated to number approximately 12,000 — as early as tomorrow.

While that would grant the migrants the ability to work in Mexico, it would also give them the ability to travel freely throughout the country — meaning that many of them will likely continue their journey to the U.S.-Mexico border and seek to gain entry to the U.S.

The caravan set off from Tapachula, Mexico earlier this week and has so far met little resistance from Mexican authorities. Organizers also said that the caravan had hit a police check where there was the Mexican National Guard, immigration officials, and state police — they are said to have let the caravan through “freely.”

It’s one of a number of massive caravans in recent years that has made their way toward the U.S. border, including one in October last year — which are typically broken up by Mexican authorities before they reach the border.

The U.S. has been seeing massive migrant numbers, with caravan-size migrant numbers being encountered every few days by agents along the border. There were more than 234,000 encounters in April alone along the border, and Border Patrol officials have said that they are encountering large migrant groups — although the caravan would be one of the larger caravans encountered in recent years.

Officials have said they expect the numbers, which have skyrocketed under the Biden administration, to keep rising in the southern months.

The caravan’s departure comes as the Biden administration has been seeking to end the Title 42 public health order, which has been used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to remove a majority of migrants at the border due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With information from SIPSE

San Cristobal Post