Thousands of migrants leave southern Mexico for the U.S. weeks ahead of presidential election
CBSOCT 12 2024
A group of approximately 2K migrants departed from Mexico's southern border Sunday, aiming to reach the US.
This migration surge comes weeks before the Nov. 5 US presidential election, which has featured immigration as a contentious issue. Some migrants cited a lack of jobs in Mexico's south and a delay in asylum appointments in the US as inspiration for this latest trek.
Pres. Joe Biden's administration recently announced an executive order extending the number of days it takes for the asylum process to reopen — tightening regulations from a previous executive order that began to reduce illegal border crossings in June.
Of course these people are risking life and limb to reach the US before the election. The Biden administration's open-bordersborder policies, which have so greatly harmed the US, are attractive when compared to Trump's plans to protect the US from invasion and keep these unvetted migrants from illegally crossing the southern border. The US can't be the world's oasis.
From Day One of Trump's initial campaign for president — and maybe even before that — Republicans have used election season to drum up Americans' fears of an invading caravan in order to steer votes. As we've seen in the past, this is just one of numerous lies Republicans tell about immigration. Once the election passes, stories of caravans usually disappear.