More than 2,000 migrants from various countries began walking early Monday in southern Mexico hoping to reach the United States despite president Donald Trump’s threats of mass deportations and limiting asylum.
They walked along the highway out of the southern Mexican city of Tapachula near the Guatemalan border.
Parents pushed children in strollers or carried them on their shoulders.
“The best thing for our family is to go at least to Mexico City, where there are more employment opportunities and you can actually settle here in Mexico while you wait for the new processes that may come from this new U.S. government,” said Olindo Colmenares, a migrant from Venezuela traveling with his wife and son.
It was at least the tenth large group of migrants to walk out of Tapachula since the U.S. election, but the so-called caravans represent only a small fraction of the daily migration flow through Mexico to the border.
They generally dissolve after a few days of walking and migrants continue on in smaller groups or family units.
Trump was sworn in Monday as the 47th U.S. president taking charge as Republicans claim unified control of Washington and set out to reshape the country’s institutions.
A wide-ranging series of executive orders that he has promised to beef up security at the southern border began taking effect soon after he was inaugurated, making good on his defining political promise to crack down on immigration.
The Trump administration on Monday ended use of a border app called CBP One that has allowed nearly 1 million people to legally enter the United States with eligibility to work.
A notice on the website of Customs and Border Protection on Monday just after Trump was sworn in let users know that the app that had been used to allow migrants to schedule appointments at eight southwest border ports of entry is no longer available.
The notice said that existing appointments have been cancelled.
Other orders will rely more on the U.S. military and redefining who gets to become an American.
But actual execution of such a far-reaching immigration agenda is certain to face legal and logistical challenges.
AP video shot by Raúl Mendoza
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