Thousands of migrants from a broad number of Caribbean countries, Venezuela and Central America arrived to Chiapas, Mexico yesterday from Tepichula, Guatemala. Their plan is to seek first Mexican federal asylum and a pardon along with a US federal asylum upon arrival to the US-Mexico border.
Rather than go around immigration authorities, migrants have for months chosen to walk directly towards them and claim asylum. Though many are legitimate economic migrants, most are not technically covered under the legal US definition of asylum seekers.
Nevertheless, migrants from Venezuela and parts of Central America have used the power of numbers to move through en masse to the US-Mexico border.
While an agreement between the US and Mexico has involved Mexico providing these migrants with temporary residency and accommodations for normalizing their status, the issue deeper than the actual migrations remains crippling sanctions on both Venezuela and Cuba. As such, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is open to talks on deterring and managing new arrivals within Mexico provided that sanctions on these two countries are reduced.
The Mexican press has reported that a US delegation has been scheduled to arrive in Mexico City for talks on migration on December 27, 2023.