1,500 migrants head toward US border, some hoping to arrive before Trump’s second term

TAPACHULA, Mexico - Around 1,500 migrants gathered in southern Mexico on Wednesday to form a new caravan, with the mission to travel north toward the U.S. border. 

Some of the group, primarily from Central and South America, are reportedly motivated by a sense of urgency to reach the U.S. before January’s presidential inauguration, fearing that it may be more difficult once President-elect Donald Trump assumes office. 

The migrants set off from Tapachula, a city near the Guatemalan border, on Wednesday where thousands of migrants may be stuck due to restricted permission to cross further into Mexico.

"Now that they realize Trump is coming into office, it’s having an effect that was somewhat unexpected," Auden Cabello, an independent journalist, told LiveNOW from FOX Wednesday. "They feel the pressure making it to the US border before inauguration day hoping that they can still make it under the Biden administration and be accepted into the country." 

Trump promises ‘largest deportation program in American history’

But Trump has previously pledged to launch "the largest deportation program in American history" on his first day back in office. 

Speaking at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to rounding up and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, particularly those with criminal records.

Migrants advance in a caravan heading to the United States, in Tapachula, Mexico, on November 5, 2024 (Credit: Jose Eduardo Torres Cancino/Anadolu via Getty Images)

"On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program to get the criminals out," Trump told the crowd. "I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail, then kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible."

Why do migrants come?

"Their [the migrants’] thinking is I have no other goal in life right now than to make it into the U.S. and give it a shot, and if I get deported, well then it’s going to be on their dime, meaning the U.S. taxpayers are going to pay for it, and they don’t have to go back with their resources. That’s their logic, that’s their thinking," Cabello continued. 

According to the Associated Press, migrants usually cannot find work to support themselves in Tapachula, and most of the foreigners trapped there are desperate to leave.

"It is going to be more difficult, that’s why we are going in hopes of getting an appointment quicker so we are able to cross before he (Trump) takes office," said Yotzeli Peña, 23, a migrant from Venezuela, told AP. "That would be easier."

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Migrant caravans began forming in 2018, and they became a final, desperate hope for poorer migrants who do not have the money to pay smugglers. If migrants try to cross Mexico alone or in small groups, they are often either detained by authorities and sent back to southern Mexico, or worse, deported back to their home countries. In that sense, there is safety in numbers: it is hard or impossible for immigration agents to detain groups of hundreds of migrants. So police and immigration agents often try to pick off smaller groups, and wait for the main body of the caravan to tire itself out. Usually the caravans stop or fall apart within 150 miles.

Aside from threats, extortion or abduction by drug cartels in Mexico, the biggest obstacle is the heat and distance, as it is over 1,100 miles from Tapachula to the nearest border crossing at Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. And that is the shortest, but also one of the most dangerous routes. It would mean 16 days of straight walking even for an adult with no rest stops; many of the migrants come with their children, according to AP.

Earlier this year, in a bid to stop people from gathering at the border to claim asylum, the U.S. government expanded areas where migrants can apply online using a CBP One cellphone app to make appointments to end the U.S. to largth area of southern Mexico.

About 1,450 appointments are made available daily, encouraging migrants to get an appointment before they show up at the border. But the service was only available in northern and central Mexico.

By extending the app south to Tapachula, officials hoped it would stem the rush north. But some migrants still want to be close to the border so that if they do get one of the cherished appointments, they can get to it quickly and not risk missing it. Trump has promised to end the app.

The Source 

The Associated Press, LiveNOW from FOX contributed to this story. This story was reported from Los Angeles.