WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — The organizer of a migrant caravan that has withered to 1,300 people said it could balloon to 10,000 people next week as they march north to the U.S. border.
Earlier this week, the group’s leader, immigration activist Irineo Mujica, said he was organizing a second group to walk out of Tapachula on Nov. 18 to join up with the first group and then head toward the U.S. border.
“I am calling on all our migrant peers in Tapachula, in Coatzcoalcos, in Tabasco, in Acayuca […] to gather on the 18th of this month,” Mujica said this week on social media, according to borderreport.com.
The group initially intended to head to Mexico City. The apparent change in plans comes after Mujica said the group had been pursued and harassed by Mexican government officials. Relations deteriorated after a group of migrants pelted officers of Mexico’s National Guard with a hail of rocks Thursday, injuring five guard officers.
There are concerns that this could include a large group of Haitian migrants, similar to the caravan of around 15,000 Haitians who arrived in Del Rio in September.
The White House put many Haitians on separation flights, as many as 80 flights, back to Haiti, and since then the number of Haitian migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. has dropped dramatically.
This comes as President Joe Biden is set to meet with the Mexican president to discuss immigration. Some question whether the Mexican government is using these caravans as leverage with the U.S., suggesting the Mexican president is pushing Biden to allow more worker visas for Mexicans.
The North American Summit with the leaders of the U.S., Mexico and Canada will happen virtually next Thursday. Political experts say Biden can’t afford another border crisis, like the influx of Haitian migrants, as he deals with the pandemic, inflation and trying to get his Build Back Better climate agenda across the finish line.
