An estimated 8,000 migrants are headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border in the largest asylum-seeker caravan in more than a year.
The migrants, mostly from Cuba, Haiti, and Honduras, set out for the U.S. on Sunday. They walked more than nine miles from the Mexican southern border city Tapachula to Alvaro Obregón, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
Local media said some caravan members came from as far away as Bangladesh and India, BBC reported.
The migrant load is the largest caravan approaching the U.S. since June 2022. That was right before President Joe Biden hosted leaders in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas
The current caravan embarked on its journey just days before Secretary of State Antony Blinken plans to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. They plan to discuss the migrant crisis.
Some caravan members held signs saying, "Exodus from poverty."
Activist Luis Garcia Villagran, who's accompanying the group, has warned that the caravan could grow to 15,000 people when it reaches the border.
"We won't stop — we'll keep walking," said Villagran, who added that Tapachula "will collapse" if the migrants did not leave the southern Mexico town.
"The problem is that the southern border [with Guatemala] is open and 800 to 1,000 people are crossing it daily," he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials said as many as 10,000 migrants have been arrested daily at the southwest border this month, the Post reported.
CBP statistics show that more than 240,000 migrants were encountered each of the past three months. Officials said encounters in December already have surpassed 200,000.
CBP last week halted railway operations at border crossings into Texas to try to curb the massive migrant migration. The federal government on Friday reopened the railroad crossings in after five days of trade disruption and outrage.
"My district is 70% Hispanic. This crisis is in our third year. I'm starting to hear from first and second-generation Americans saying I do not want these people in my country," Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said, News 4 San Antonio reported.
“It is absolutely turned upside down. Why? Because when they go to the grocery store they can't get bread. When they call to go to the hospital they can't get a bed. They are feeling further and further behind. Not to mention the high-speed chases that are so dangerous our schools going into lockdown."