Connect with us
[the_ad id="89560"]

illegal immigration

“We pray Trump doesn’t win”: 150,000 migrants in Mexico are rushing to the border before the election

Published

8 months ago

9 minute read

From ToddBensman.com

By Todd Bensman as published by The Daily Mail

“I love Kamala Harris,’ a young Venezuelan man declared as he rested on the side of a highway in southern Mexico last week.

His belongings were heaped at his feet. Hundreds of fellow migrants stretched out along the roadway in both directions.

They’re headed for the U.S. and nearly all of them have an opinion about who should be America’s next president.

Donald Trump, no,’ the Venezuelan man said, shaking his head and dragging his thumb across his throat in a slicing motion.

He is one of thousands of migrants – from all over the world – joining a new rush traveling north from southern Mexico toward the U.S. border, less than two weeks before the presidential election.

I went to Tapachula in southwest Mexico near the border with Guatemala to investigate why they were on the move – again.

Throughout 2022 and 2023, massive caravans – some reportedly as large as 6,000-strong – became a common feature of the immigration crisis.

The mass migration became such a humanitarian and public relations disaster for the Biden-Harris Administration that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was dispatched to meet with Mexico’s president in December 2023 to demand that he impose stricter immigration controls.

And the pressure campaign worked.

'I love Kamala Harris ,' a young Venezuelan man declared as he rested on the side of a highway in southern Mexico last week.

‘I love Kamala Harris ,’ a young Venezuelan man declared as he rested on the side of a highway in southern Mexico last week.  He is one of thousands of migrants – from all over the world – joining a new rush traveling north from southern Mexico toward the U.S. border, less than two weeks before the presidential election. (Above) Migrant caravan near Tapachula, Mexico on October 20, 2024

In January, I reported for DailyMail.com on Mexican police and military roundups near the U.S. border.

Migrants who made it to those northern provinces were detained and shipped hundreds of miles back south to cities like Tapachula in the southwest or Villahermosa near the gulf.

The Mexican media called it ‘Operation Carousel.’

And for nearly 10 months, the caravans stopped.

But now, they’re back on.

The migrants I spoke to on the road this week believe that this may be their last chance.

Many of them hope to reach the U.S. before November 5 because they fear that, if Trump is re-elected, he’ll close the southern border and enforce longstanding immigration laws.

‘If [Trump] wins… one has to do what the government says, [wait] for my turn,’ said Carlos, a Honduran man in a caravan 30 miles north of Tapachula.

In reality, it’s unlikely that these migrants will be able to make the 1,300-mile trek in the next two weeks. But they can try.

And there’s another more complicated reason that the caravans have started back up: The Mexican government is encouraging them.

The caravans that I traveled with were escorted by Mexican National Guard escorts, something that I have witnessed.  Perhaps, it not only the migrants growing restless, so, too, are the authorities.

For months, an estimated 150,000 U.S.-bound migrants have been bottled up in increasingly dire conditions in Tapachula, as ever more arrive there from South and Central America.

In fact, the true number massing in southern Mexico may even be in the hundreds of thousands.

I’ve visited Tapachula at least five times over the last decade and I’ve never seen it so crowded. All the hotels and motels are packed. Immigrant shelters are at full capacity.

Those who cannot afford accommodations – including women and children – sleep on the streets and in city parks, packed in like sardines.

Remember this as you hear Vice President Kamala Harris tout new statistics showing a precipitous decline in the number of illegal U.S. border crossings in 2024.

She attributes the positive change to the recent enforcement of U.S. asylum laws. But that’s not the full story.

Even the Department of Homeland Security admitted earlier this month that the drop in illegal US border crossings is due, in part, to, ‘increased Mexican enforcement efforts.’

Indeed, at the White House’s behest, Mexico has been containing these people for months in southern cities like Tapachula and Villahermosa, which have come to resemble sprawling, open-air refugee camps.

Now the situation is becoming untenable.

According to those I’ve spoken to, the Mexican government’s promises to provide travel documents to the migrants have never materialized.

In an apparent recognition of the overcrowding, the U.S. government is now building a new migration processing facility in Tapachula.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government is starting to transfer migrants out of Tapachula into surrounding cities to relieve the growing pressure.

And, the coming election is only heightening tensions.

Incredible drone shows large caravan migrants heading to the US

A group of Ghanaian men in a congested park in Tapachula told me that they feared a Trump presidency.

‘We do not like Donald Trump, because he don’t like us,’ one man said.

To him, Kamala Harris is the preferred option.

Another Ghanian man said he plans to wait for the results of the election, before making his next move: ‘If after election day [Harris is elected], we know that everything is good, then we can enter.’

A group of Ghanaian men in a congested park in Tapachula told me that they feared a Trump presidency. 'We do not like Donald Trump, because he don't like us,' one man said. To him, Kamala Harris is the preferred option.

A group of Ghanaian men in a congested park in Tapachula told me that they feared a Trump presidency. ‘We do not like Donald Trump, because he don’t like us,’ one man said. To him, Kamala Harris is the preferred option.

A middle-aged Venezuelan man also in the park reiterated those fears: ‘We know that if Donald Trump wins, all the migrants will be kicked out the [United States]… we hope that he doesn’t win.’

It is still unclear how far north these migrant caravans will get before America votes – and I suspect that many migrants only wish to escape Tapachula.

But, certainly, it seems likely that after November 5 – Mexico’s newly-elected president will consider her country’s part in ‘Operation Carousel’ to be complete and lift any remaining immigration controls.

That would mean hundreds of thousands of migrants, who have been waiting out the U.S. election in Mexico, may be permitted to – once again – try their luck at crossing illegally into the U.S.

As far as they’re concerned, a Kamala Harris presidency would mean that America’s borders will be thrown open.

If Donald Trump is elected president, their plans may change.

Related Topics:

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

More from this author
conflict / 12 hours ago

Iran nuclear talks were ‘coordinated deception’ between US and Israel: report

Alberta / 13 hours ago

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith Discusses Moving Energy Forward at the Global Energy Show in Calgary

Alberta / 14 hours ago

Punishing Alberta Oil Production: The Divisive Effect of Policies For Carney’s “Decarbonized Oil”

illegal immigration

LA protests continue as judge pulls back CA National Guard ahead of ‘No Kings Day’

Published on June 12, 2025

By

From The Center Square

By

Protests in Los Angeles continued into Thursday night as tensions died down across the West Coast ahead of thousands of anti-Trump demonstrations planned for Saturday — the “No Kings Day” event is set to take place coast-to-coast amid civil unrest nationwide.

The Los Angeles Police Department posted to X as the 8 p.m. curfew went into effect Thursday, reporting that protesters were throwing “bricks, concrete and commercial grade fireworks.” The agency said less lethal munitions have been authorized and “may cause pain and discomfort.

The curfew covers an area where demonstrators have spent days protesting President Donald Trump’s immigration raids and the deployment of the California National Guard. A federal judge blocked his use of the guard late Thursday, but did not rule on the Marines also deployed there.

Gov. Gavin Newsom held a press conference in San Francisco shortly after the ruling, calling out Trump for deploying the guard without his consent. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer’s preliminary injunction takes effect Friday, at which point Newsom will resume control of his National Guard.

“This is what he does. He creates a problem, and then he tries to be a hero in his own Marvel movie. He initiated those raids,” Newsom said of Trump’s actions.  “He significantly increased the scale and scope of those raids. That’s why he wants the National Guard, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of guardsmen and women, now being dispersed everywhere.”

The Trump administration filed an intent to appeal Breyer’s ruling shortly after. In the meantime, the guard will go back to its regular duties on Friday instead of guarding the federal immigration in downtown Los Angeles, only one day before thousands of protests nationwide against Trump.

According to a press release, the LAPD arrested 71 people for failure to disperse Wednesday night into Thursday morning, and intends to post another update Friday morning. Seven others were also arrested for violating the curfew, and two for assaulting an officer with a deadly weapon.

Protesters filmed live streams on YouTube leading up to the curfew, reporting that some people were arrested and that they heard munitions being fired. Some demonstrators encouraged the group to disperse, adding that escalating things may be what the administration is waiting for.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation posted to social media Thursday evening that it had cut services short for the day in response to the protests. LAPD vehicles were seen lining the streets, with officers ready to issue arrests in the event of further unrest or curfew violations.

In some live streams, officers were seen issuing arrests just 30 minutes after the 8 p.m. curfew, and in some instances, towing away vehicles. Another protest in Salt Lake City, Utah, kicked off at 6 p.m. on Thursday after the Party for Socialism & Liberation called for demonstrations there.

The Salt Lake Police Department told KSL News Radio that the demonstration of roughly 600 people was mostly peaceful, aside from a damaged Tesla. Officers broke up some fights and remained on scene as it died down around 8:30 p.m., Brian Will with KUTV 2 News reported.

This is a developing story.

Continue Reading

Business

Trump: ‘Changes are coming’ to aggressive immigration policy after business complaints

Published on June 12, 2025

By

From The Center Square

By

“So we’re going to have an order on that pretty soon – we can’t do that to our farmers and leisure too, hotels, we’re going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.”

President Donald Trump said Thursday that changes are coming to his aggressive immigration policies after complaints from farmers and business owners.

“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” Trump wrote in a social media post Thursday morning. “In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!”

Later Thursday, Trump made it clear that businesses need workers.

“Our farmers are being hurt badly. They have very good workers – they’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be great. And we’re going to have to do something about that,” the president said.

He added: “We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don’t have, maybe, what they’re supposed to have.”

Just how Trump may change his approach to immigration enforcement remains unclear, but he said he wants to help farmers and business owners.

“You go into a farm and you look and people, they’ve been there for 20 or 25 years and they work great and the owner of the farm loves them and you’re supposed to throw them out. You know what happens? They end up hiring the criminals that have come in, the murderers from prisons and everything else,” Trump said.

Trump said changes would be coming soon, but gave little detail on how policies could change.

“So we’re going to have an order on that pretty soon – we can’t do that to our farmers and leisure too, hotels, we’re going to have to use a lot of common sense on that.”

In a later post on Truth Social, Trump said illegal immigration had destroyed American institutions.

“Biden let 21 Million Unvetted, Illegal Aliens flood into the Country from some of the most dangerous and dysfunctional Nations on Earth — Many of them Rapists, Murderers, and Terrorists. This tsunami of Illegals has destroyed Americans’ Public Schools, Hospitals, Parks, Community Resources, and Living Conditions,” the president wrote. “They have stolen American Jobs, consumed BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in Free Welfare, and turned once idyllic Communities, like Springfield, Ohio, into Third World Nightmares.”

He added that deportations would continue: “I campaigned on, and received a Historic Mandate for, the largest Mass Deportation Program in American History. Polling shows overwhelming Public Support for getting the Illegals out, and that is exactly what we will do. As Commander-in-Chief, I will always protect and defend the Heroes of ICE and Border Patrol, whose work has already resulted in the Most Secure Border in American History. Anyone who assaults or attacks an ICE or Border Agent will do hard time in jail. Those who are here illegally should either self deport using the CBP Home App or, ICE will find you and remove you. Saving America is not negotiable!”

Continue Reading

Trending

X