Imminent border rush: Thousands race toward US, hoping to cross before Trump’s potential return
Several caravans, thousands-strong, are making their way through Mexico, hoping to cross the United States’ border before a potential administration change with the presidential election just weeks away.
On October 5, a caravan of 600 to 800 individuals left Tapachula, Mexico, according to the Border Report. Last week, another group of 1,000 reportedly departed from the city. On Sunday, a caravan with 2,000 individuals left Mexico’s southern border.
‘They could both close the CBP One appointment and all the services that are helping migrants.’
Luis Garcia Villagran, director of the Tapachula-based Center for Human Dignity, told a local news outlet that he estimates that at least 4,000 people, divided into multiple caravans, are already moving through Mexico and on their way to the U.S.
“As we speak, 40,000 to 45,000 migrants, 30 percent from the Middle East and Africa, are stuck and trying to leave for the United States before the end of the year,” Garcia Villagran said in a statement translated by Border Report.
Joel Zambrano, a Venezuelan national traveling with the caravan that set off over the weekend, told the New York Post that a new administration “makes us fearful.”
Zambrano stated that he is concerned that after January 20, 2025, Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One application will be shut down. Currently, the mobile app allows foreign nationals to schedule an appointment at a port of entry to make an asylum claim. Approximately 1.3 million people over the past two years have been allowed into the U.S. through the Biden-Harris administration’s app and its other so-called “lawful pathways.”
“They say this could change because they could both close the CBP One appointment and all the services that are helping migrants,” Zambrano told the Post.
Trump has vowed that his top priority, should he secure the upcoming presidential election, is to “seal the border and stop the migrant invasion,” according to his campaign’s website. He also pledged to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.”
With immigration a top-of-mind concern for most voters, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has also attempted to appear tough on the border crisis that the Biden-Harris administration manufactured.
During her first visit to the border, she stated, “I will do more to secure our border, to reduce illegal border crossings.”
“I will take further action to keep the border closed between ports of entry,” she added.
While the details of her border strategy are unclear, the Biden-Harris administration has advocated for the implementation of more so-called “lawful pathways” that have expedited entries, thereby deterring foreign nationals from illegally crossing the border between ports of entry. While these additional pathways have reportedly reduced southern border encounters, they have not reduced the number of foreign nationals entering the country with little to no vetting.
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