Mexico Stops 2 Migrant Caravans After Trump Tariff Threat

Days after Donald Trump announced that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States,” or face 25% import duties on Mexican goods, it appears she’s done just that.

According to the Associated Press, Mexico has already broken up two migrant caravans consisting of approximately 4,000 people at their peak. Some of the migrants were bused to cities in southern Mexico, while others were offered transit papers, which allow them to travel across Mexico for 20 days.

According to migrant rights activist Luis García Villagrán, Mexico’s actions against the two caravans appear to be part of “an agreement between the president of Mexico and the president of the United States.”

Thank you, @realDonaldTrump for doing more to secure the border in the last 30 days than President Biden has done in the last four years.

The era of open borders is over. https://t.co/dcOG3MYtlW

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) December 2, 2024

According to the report, the first of the caravans started near the Mexico-Guatemala burder on Nov. 5, the day Trump was elected. It had traveled roughly 270 miles in the ensuing four weeks of walking, ending up in Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca when it was broken up.

“They took some of us to Acapulco, others to Morelia, and others from our group to Oaxaca city,” said said Bárbara Rodríguez, a native Venezuelan who ended up catching a bus into Mexico City.

In a statement Saturday, the National Immigration Institute said the migrants voluntary accepted bus rides “to various areas where there is medical assistance and where their migratory status will be reviewed,” and said “upon accepting (the rides), they said they no longer wanted to face the risks along their way.” -AP

The second caravan made it around 140 miles to the town of Tonala in Chiapas state, where authorities offered the migrants the transit visas.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) has approved an injunction filed by the Jesuit Refugee Service and the Alaíde Foppa Legal Clinic to create a public registry of detained migrants.