It’s a crazy story, to say the least. It appears that there is a wave of people walking through Mexico and headed to the U.S.
For five days now hundreds of Central Americans – children, women, and men, most of them from Honduras – have boldly crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States.
Despite their being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.
Organized by a group of volunteers called Pueblos Sin Fronteras, or People Without Borders, the caravan is intended to help migrants safely reach the United States, bypassing not only authorities who would seek to deport them, but gangs and cartels who are known to assault vulnerable migrants.
Organizers like Rodrigo Abeja hope that the sheer size of the crowd will give immigration authorities and criminals pause before trying to stop them.
Quite a story. It raises several questions:
1. Where are the Mexican immigration agents? We’ve often heard that these agents are not very nice to Central Americans. So what’s up? Why such a passive approach?
Speaking of that, I called a Mexican friend to chat about this story. He said Mexicans are aware of it and wondering why the authorities are not taking action.
2. What should the U.S. do? I hope we are quietly telling Mexico to stop the march and send these people back home.
The group heading this march is apparently looking for a confrontation with U.S. border guards. They want to rush and run in, or something like that.
Let’s hope Mexico does the right thing and stops it. What does Mexico gain from this?
