WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — More than 3,000 Central American migrants are heading north Tuesday from southern Mexico, and many plan to walk to the southern border.
On Monday, the group walked along a highway toward the town of Huixtla where security forces had deployed, possibly signaling that authorities would soon try to break up the group.
About 100 Mexican National Guard soldiers and immigration agents waited just outside Huixtla. Authorities have dissolved other migrant groups in the area during other recent attempts.
The migrants set out early Saturday from Tapachula, near the Guatemala border, where thousands of migrants have spent months waiting for asylum applications or other visas that would allow them to transit Mexico. The government has used a containment strategy with a varying degree of success to try to keep migrants in the south and far from the U.S. border.
Large groups of migrants attempted to walk out of Tapachula in recent months after growing frustrated with the wait and their inability to find work. Those groups were largely made up of Haitians, who were notably absent from the larger group that left Saturday. Thousands of Haitians made it to the U.S. border in September, many of whom were later deported to their homeland.
The latest group is composed mostly of Central Americans, many with young children.
They started walking early Monday from Huehuetan before the heat of the day set in.
In August, Mexican National Guardsmen and immigration agents were criticized for using excessive force to break up a smaller group of migrants.
No group has come close to the size of migrant caravans that crossed Mexico in 2018 and 2019. Large efforts that started in Honduras have been broken up by authorities in Guatemala before reaching Mexico.
The group is well organized, reportedly using social media and other digital platforms to coordinate