Several thousand migrants reportedly left the southern Mexico town of Tapachula on Monday, beginning their journey to the United States to coincide with the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week.
The Associated Press and Reuters reported the group is the largest to leave southern Mexico this year, with many migrants coming from Venezuela, Cuba and Central America. The Associated Press estimated the caravan included between 4,000 to 5,000 migrants, while Reuters reported the caravan has grown to at least 6,000 people.
The caravan has set its sights on eventually reaching the U.S. border but remains hundreds of miles away. Migrants walked from the southern city of Tapachula to a town about 10 miles away before stopping to rest for the night, The Associated Press reported.
The group left the impoverished border city hours before Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed he will not be present at the Summit of the Americas, the continental event hosted by the Biden administration that kicked off on Monday.
López Obrador had threatened to snub the summit for weeks, citing the U.S. refusal to invite the leaders of Cuba and Nicaragua and representatives of the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, which the U.S. does not recognize as legitimate.
Mexico and Honduras are sending lower-level delegations to protest the exclusion of the three countries, which either don’t recognize or don’t adhere to the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
President Biden is expected on Friday to sign a declaration to address migration alongside regional governments, and officials have expressed confidence that Mexico will sign the document even with López Obrador’s snub.
López Obrador is planning an official visit to Washington next month to meet one-on-one with Biden about immigration and U.S. investment in the region, according to Reuters.
The regional agreement is the latest step in U.S. efforts to work with Central American governments to curb migration, with border crossings spiking in recent months. The administration has stressed that border enforcement must be coupled with investments to address root causes of migration.
The Biden and Trump administrations had both asked Mexico to take a more active role in managing migration in the country. Following reported pressure from the United States late last year, Mexico said it would require travel visas for Venezuelans after the number of migrants from the country crossing the U.S. border last year dramatically increased.
With Monday’s caravan largely including Venezuelan migrants, many had complained of delays in paperwork on their visa requests that have trapped them in Tapachula, with Mexico’s asylum agency overwhelmed by a rise in requests.
Mexico has implemented a policy of confining migrants hoping to reach the U.S. to the country’s south, the poorest part of Mexico.
The new caravan is one of the largest reported in recent years but comes on the heels of previous groups that were broken up by a mix of force and offers from Central American governments.
Thousands of migrants traveling in southern Mexico accepted a deal in November to disband in exchange for visas to remain in Mexico.
Guatemala sent in police with riot shields to break up more than 600 migrants traveling in a caravan headed toward the U.S. border in January.