Hundreds of migrants mount protest in southern Mexico in bid to legalize status

Hundreds of migrants mount protest in southern Mexico in bid to legalize status


Migrants walk in a caravan during U.S. Presidential election day, in an attempt to reach Mexico’s northern border, in Tapachula, Mexico November 5, 2024. 

Daniel Becerril | Reuters

A group of about 1,200 migrants set out walking before dawn in southern Mexico on Wednesday aiming for the capital where they hoped to legalize their immigration status and find more work opportunities after a long frustrating wait near the Guatemala border.

Cubans made up the majority of the migrants, but there were also people from Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil and Haiti.

Unlike earlier migrant “caravans” with a goal to reach the United States, Wednesday’s group and others over the past year are trying to coerce Mexican authorities into speeding up the process for asylum and get out of southern Mexico where there are few work opportunities.

Cuban migrant Losiel Sánchez and his wife arrived in Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, in November. They had hoped to get an appointment through a U.S. government app called CBP One that would allow them to cross the U.S. border, request asylum and likely be paroled into the U.S. while that process played out.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump has ended that program, stranding tens of thousands of migrants who had already been making their way toward the U.S. border. Sánchez decided to stay in Mexico and seek asylum, but despite numerous visits to Mexico’s asylum agency, known as Comar, the couple still doesn’t have an answer about their status.

He said he was scammed by someone claiming to be a lawyer who promised to help speed them through the process.

“Everything is expensive and I can’t pay rent,” said Sánchez, who hopes to have better luck in Mexico City. “There’s no work, they don’t want to give you work if you don’t have papers.”

Anery Sosa, another Cuban migrant, has been in Tapachula for year. Her attempt to get asylum was derailed when someone stole her documents. She had a daughter with a Mexican and hopes to find someone to take care of her during the day so that she can work. Her husband’s earnings alone don’t cover rent and food, she said.

The group of migrants appeared to have organized without a leader over social platforms where frustrated migrants rallied to try to walk their way out of southern Mexico. In the past, Mexican authorities have allowed migrants to walk for a few days and then offer to help with their documents and sometimes transportation.



Source

CNBC Daily Open: Unpleasant news from the U.S. appears to be making investors cheery
World

CNBC Daily Open: Unpleasant news from the U.S. appears to be making investors cheery

Traders work at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 1, 2025. NYSE On Wednesday, the U.S. government ground to a halt. Stock markets, however, jumped — one benchmark even hit a record high. Traders in prediction markets are betting the shutdown will last nearly two weeks. Nothing too radical, since that’s the average length […]

Read More
SK Hynix shares hit multidecade highs, Samsung also surges as chipmakers partner with OpenAI
World

SK Hynix shares hit multidecade highs, Samsung also surges as chipmakers partner with OpenAI

Headquarters of Samsung in Mountain View, California, on October 28, 2018. Smith Collection/gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images Shares of South Korean chip heavyweights Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix surged Thursday, a day after the two companies partnered with artificial-intelligence major OpenAI as part of the U.S. firm’s Stargate initiative. Shares of Samsung hit […]

Read More
Stock futures are little changed as investors look past government shutdown: Live updates
World

Stock futures are little changed as investors look past government shutdown: Live updates

A trader works at the New York Stock Exchange on Oct. 1, 2025. NYSE Stock futures are little changed Wednesday night after the S&P 500 logged a fresh high and investors appeared to shrug off concerns tied to the latest U.S. government shutdown. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20 points, or […]

Read More