Over 7,000-strong migrant caravan inches closer to US border as Biden vows to end Trump’s asylum policies
Caravans with thousands of Central American migrants reportedly are trekking toward the Mexican border on their way to the US, where they expect to find friendlier policies after President-elect Joe Biden takes office next week.
About 7,000 to 8,000 migrants have entered Guatemala from Honduras in just the past day, Reuters reported, citing Guatemala’s immigration authority. Video footage shows thousands of people forcing their way through a police cordon as they cross the border into Guatemala.
Two migrant groups with well over 5,000 people are working their way toward the US, including the one that has already breached the Guatemalan border, US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan said Saturday in a Fox News interview.
“It’s coming,” Morgan said. “It’s already started, just as we promised and anticipated it would with this rhetoric from the new administration on the border.”
Biden, who’s scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20, has said he plans to “immediately” introduce an immigration bill upon taking office. His immigration plan, reported by the Los Angeles Times on Friday, reportedly includes a “pathway to citizenship” for some 11 millions of illegal aliens who are already living in the US.
Unlike past amnesty proposals, Biden’s plan wouldn’t come with provisions for toughened border enforcement, according to the report.
The Democrat president-elect also intends to end many of the policies that President Donald Trump has put in place to deter illegal migration, including rules that keep migrants in Mexico while they await their court hearings in the US.
Trump predicted during a border visit on Tuesday that the policy changes would lead to “a tidal wave of illegal immigration, a wave like you’ve never seen before.”
He added, “They’re coming because they think that it’s a gravy train at the end.”
Immigration activist group Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which has organized immigrant caravans to the US and has funding ties to billionaire George Soros, called on the incoming Biden administration to “honor its commitments.” Biden’s arrival creates an opportunity for the governments of Mexico and Central America to develop migration policies that “respect and promote the human rights of the population in mobility,” the group added.
As the caravan moves closer to its border, Mexico, for its part, is beefing up its border security to try to block the extended procession from passing through under its existing agreement with the US.
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