Fear of Trump’s Return Drives Migrants to Flee to US
Hundreds of migrants from over a dozen countries set out on foot from Mexico’s southern border on Sunday, determined to reach the US-Mexico border before the November elections.
Excel Magazine International believes their urgency stems from fears that if Donald Trump wins, he will fulfill his promise to close the border to asylum-seekers.
Miguel Salazar, a 37-year-old migrant from El Salvador, expressed his concerns: “We risk being blocked from obtaining permits to cross the border.”
He fears that a new Trump administration might stop granting appointments to migrants through CBP One, an app used by asylum-seekers to enter the US legally.
The group departed from Ciudad Hidalgo, a southern Mexican town bordering Guatemala.
Some migrants had been waiting for weeks for permits to travel north. In recent years, large groups have formed to reduce the risk of attacks by gangs or detention by Mexican immigration officials.
However, these caravans often disperse in southern Mexico due to exhaustion from walking hundreds of kilometers.
Mexico has also made it more difficult for migrants to reach the US border by bus or train, rarely awarding travel permits to those without visas.
Excel Magazine learnt thousands have been detained and bused back to southern Mexico.
Oswaldo Reyna, a 55-year-old Cuban migrant, criticized Trump’s comments about migrants “invading” the US. “We are not delinquents,” he said. “We are hard-working people seeking a better life, fleeing poverty and hardship in our homelands.”
