Mexican police detain hundreds of Central American migrants

Mexican officials on Monday detained hundreds of Central American migrants heading toward the U.S. border, according to The Associated Press.

Police detained up to 500 migrants traveling with a caravan of about 3,000 in Pijijiapan, a town in the southern state of Chiapas, according to the AP. They targeted isolated groups of people at the end of the procession as they stopped to rest in the shade, according to the news service.

{mosads}Several pickup trucks loaded with detainees were driven to buses presumably bound for immigration stations, according to the AP.

A previous caravan of migrants headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, leading to President Trump and other Republicans repeatedly invoking the specter of the caravan in an attempt to drum up support for stricter immigration restrictions. U.S. officials fired tear gas on a group of migrants attempting to breach a Tijuana border fence in January.