Migrant caravan with 3,000 people makes its way toward U.S. border with Mexico

At least 3,000 migrants are trekking through Mexico as they are the latest group to push toward the U.S. southern border. 

The group is in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas in hopes of reaching Mexico City, where they plan to pressure government officials to provide them with exit visas or legal documents that would allow them to continue their journey to the United States border.

The group departed from the municipality of Tapachula – which borders with Guatemala – Sunday, reached the town of Huehuetán Monday, and found itself braving the hot sun in the city of Huixtla by mid-day Tuesday.

Venezuelan national Janet Vázquez confessed she had no option but to leave her ill son back home as part of her efforts to reach the United States and find work in order to cover the cost of his care.

‘A long journey, very tough. We are going ahead for our dream, for our family, which is truly (living through) a crisis in Venezuela that is too hard,’ Vázquez told Univision Tuesday. ‘I have a sick son. I had to leave him there in Venezuela. But hey, let’s go fight for them. This has really been very difficult.’

The migrants expect to make the 750-mile journey to Mexico City within 10 days, but hope it could be cut short for many of the 3,000 people if the Mexican government provides ground transportation  

Migrants march along the side of a highway in Alvaro Obregón, Chiapas, Monday

A migrant, detained for months in southern Mexico, carries his belongings as he continues his trip in a caravan of people heading for Mexico City to speed up their applications for U.S. asylum

The asylum-seeking caravan, which is largely composed by individuals from Central and South America as well as China and other Asian countries, had threatened to block roads or cause self-injuries Monday unless the Mexican government agreed to meetings or supply buses that would transport them to the capital.

‘We are asking the government to give us a hand, if only for the children, even if it’s just water and food,’ Raúl Gómez Rodriguez, of Honduras, said. ‘They should give us buses, so that we can continue on.’

Among the group’s other demands includes the closure of National Immigration Institute detention centers like the one in the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez that was set on fire March 27, which resulted in the deaths of 40 migrants.

‘It could well have been any of us,’ Salvadoran migrant Miriam Argueta said of those killed in the fire. ‘In fact, a lot of our countrymen died. The only thing we are asking for is justice, and to be treated like anyone else.’

A migrant holds a cross with text that reads in Spanish ‘State crime. Dead’ as he and others started marching from Tapachula, Chiapas to Mexico City

Migrants start walking north on their way to Mexico City from Tapachula, a city in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas located across from Guatemala 

Migrants start walking north from Tapachula, Chiapas to Mexico City Sunday

The caravan was organized by Irineo Mújica, an activist who holds dual Mexico-United States citizenship, has called on the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to try the agency’s director, Francisco Garduño, in court for the migrant deaths.

Six officials of the National Immigration Institute, a guard at the center and the Venezuelan migrant accused of starting the blaze are already in custody facing homicide charges.

‘We are asking the government that justice be done to the killers, for them to stop hiding high-ranking officials,’ Mújica said before the migrants walked out of Tapachula.

Migrants who are taking part in a caravan rest on the outskirts of Tapachula, Chiapas, Sunday before setting off on mass protest procession through southern Mexico to demand the end of detention centers like the one in the northern border city of Ciudad Juárez that caught fire March 27, killing 40 migrants

A migrant woman and a child rest prior to joining a caravan that is marching from southern Mexican state of Chiapas to Mexico City 

Some of the migrants are expected to continue traveling north to region in Mexico that borders with the United States

He also is seeking that the government demilitarize the National Immigration Institute and wants them to improve the way migrants are registered in the country.

Mújica, who founded the Pueblos Sin Fronteras activist group, has called the march a ‘Viacrucis,’ or stations of the cross procession.

Some of migrants have been spotted carrying banners or wooden crosses that read ‘Government Crime’ and ‘The Government Killed Them,’ in reference to the 40 migrants who died in the detention center fire.

The migrants expect to complete the 750-mile walk to Mexico City in 10 days, but many are expected to continue north to the U.S. border and challenge the administration of President Joe Biden, which has seen an influx of illegal aliens arriving at the border and entering the country.