‘If Trump wins I’m never going’: The 2,000-strong migrant army rushing to the US
The prospect of the former president back in office – and tougher border restrictions – is galvanising migrants to start walking now
They had walked through the night while it was cool, their spirits – despite the odds stacked against them – still high. A ragtag army of 2,000 migrants travelling by foot and in convoy, trying to reach the United States before the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House.
As the sun came up on Thursday morning, the migrants had managed 90 miles in the five days since setting out from Tapachula, the main city on Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala. They only have another 1,000 miles to go to arrive at their promised land: Mexico’s northern border. One of the caravan’s organiser’s calls it “their exodus”; it could almost be a pilgrimage.
The prospect of a Trump presidency – and with it even tougher border restrictions – has galvanised them to start walking now.
A second convoy will set off on Nov 5, deliberately timed for election day, “so Joe Biden and Kamala Harris know we are heading their way” in an effort by human rights activists to emphasise their plight.
A deal between the current administration and the Mexican government has made it harder for migrants to cross, but it is Trump who is demanding the death penalty for migrants who kill US citizens and has made mass deportations a central plank of his vote-winning strategy.
It takes the current convoy half an hour to pass under a bridge that spans the Pacific highway leading from Tapachula all the way to Mexico City. It’s 6.30am and the crowd, which includes young children, have managed 14 miles by the end of the night-time trek.
They have been walking in the highway’s slow lane, huge trucks passing them on the outside. Some of the children are on tiny push bikes, while babies are strapped to their mothers’ backs.
Roads off the highway lead into deadly, drug cartel country, up in the mountains, where two gangs are fighting it out for control of the cocaine and people trafficking markets. The highway, pitch black, and cars zooming past, is about as safe as it gets.
At this hour of the morning, with the sun barely up, it’s already hot and humid and the migrants’ journey is done. They make camp for the day under any bit of shade they can find in the village of Hermenegildo Galeana, including the steps of the whitewashed church and the covered basketball court.
See Also:
Migrants say they’re not coming if Trump is president
Mexico Is Holding Back A Massive Wave Of Illegal Immigrants That Will Break After The Election
So if Trump is elected these illegal (because the vast majority are 100% economically motivated) refugees are threatening to do what, ‘boycott’ America?