Tuxtla Gutierrez: A caravan of around 1,200 Central American migrants entered southern Mexico on Wednesday bound for the US, police said, even as President Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs if it fails to slow illegal immigration. Authorities did not deter the large group of undocumented migrants who crossed the bridge over the Suchiate river, which forms the border between Guatemala and Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico.
A municipal police patrol monitored the migrants—who were mostly from Honduras—but did not stop them as they began walking along the roadside in the southern state of Chiapas toward the city of Tapachula. Mexico has deployed its new National Guard police force to the southern border and stepped up detentions and deportations to slow the flow of migrants crossing its territory toward the US.
But migrant detentions at the US-Mexican border still increased by 32 per cent month-on-month in May, to more than 144,000, according to US Customs and Border Protection. That has provoked the wrath of the US President, who threatened last week to apply tariffs of five percent on all Mexican exports starting Monday, and rising incrementally to 25 per cent by October.
A high-level delegation led by Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard was due to meet with US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later on Wednesday to seek a deal to avoid the tariffs. The number of migrants crossing Mexico toward the US has surged in recent months. They are Central Americans fleeing poverty and violence, travelling in families—and sometimes in large caravans travelling together for safety.
