A new migrant caravan with thousands of people is headed for El Paso and is expected to arrive any day.
About 2,000 migrants began traveling earlier this month from Tapachula at the southern tip of Mexico near the Guatemala border. Video clips posted on social media show the huge group walking along roads near traffic and carrying a large white cross with red lettering.
One man can be heard telling the crowd through a bullhorn, “A la frontera,” which means, “To the border.”
🚨BREAKING: @Oscarelblue captures footage of a CARAVAN OF 3000 Migrants leaving the south of Mexico with direction to the USA! pic.twitter.com/bDGo8nAYPG
— B O R D E R A L E R T S (@BorderAlerts) March 25, 2024
🚨BREAKING NEWS: New criminal alien caravan organized by Catholic Church “Viacrucis Migrante” makes its way to the United States. Each one of them will break into our country and Joe Biden will give them free work permits, free housing, education, healthcare and legal services. pic.twitter.com/0JpQ3YzxGJ
— Joseph Trimmer (@JosephTrimmer_) March 25, 2024
The group is headed to Ciudad Juarez, which shares a border with El Paso, according to Voir Dire International, a group that tracks mass migration.
The caravan has been dubbed the “Way of the Cross Migrants” and includes men, women, and children from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and 17 other countries, according to the tracking group.
“Migrants have no other option but to walk as part of a group or hitch a ride in a trailer that could be their death,” organizer Luis Villagran with the Center for Human Dignity in Tapachula told Telemundo.
Churches in El Paso are preparing shelter for the caravan’s arrival, according to Border Report.
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“We continue to marshal all available resources and be aware of the trends,” Bishop Mark Seitz of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso told Border Report on Monday. “El Paso has shown itself to be very able to gear up when the surge comes and provide a safe and orderly way for those who have been permitted to come in to find a secure situation and continue on their path.”
However, shelter space is strained in El Paso, a hot spot for illegal border crossings that has been overwhelmed by migrants over the last two years.
The news of the caravan comes after a large group of migrant men stormed the El Paso border and assaulted National Guard members last month.
NEW: Texas has arrested 70 more migrants who rioted at the southern border in El Paso, Texas and assaulted National Guard troops.
Glad to see someone is taking action.
Texas charged nine of the migrants on Wednesday involved in the riot.
Knives and shanks were… pic.twitter.com/LXgME5ivrX
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) March 29, 2024
More than 70 migrants have been arrested on misdemeanor rioting charges related to the March 21 incident. In the wake of the violent incident, the Texas National Guard sent 200 members of the Tactical Border Force to El Paso. The force specializes in civil disturbance. Texas also recently installed more border wire in El Paso.
The southern border has been in a state of crisis for years under the Biden administration. Last year, 2.5 million migrants were apprehended crossing or trying to cross the southern border, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The administration has released more than 2.3 million border crossers into the country since 2021. Meanwhile, more than 96,000 “known gotaways,” migrants who were detected but not caught, have reportedly crossed the southern border just between October 1 and January.
The border crisis has resulted also in tens of thousands of migrants descending on major cities like New York City, Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. New York City has seen more than 183,000 migrants show up since the spring of 2022. Chicago has seen more than 37,000 migrants. Both cities have spent tens of millions of dollars on food, shelter, and other migrant-related costs.