Thousands join Christmas Eve migrant caravan – the biggest in more than a year – as it treks through Mexico and towards the U.S. border just days before Blinken arrives in the capital to hammer out new agreement to stem surge

The largest caravan of migrants in 18 months set off for the United States from Mexico on Christmas Eve as border crossing rates continue to fall.

About 10,000 people, led by Mexican activist Luis Rey García Villagran, left the border town of Tapachula in southern Mexico for the long march north as many of those already at the U.S. border completed their journey tonight.

President Joe Biden pulled Secretary of State Antony Blinken away from the Middle East crisis for a summit with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday after U.S. authorities recorded more than 242,000 migrants crossing the border in November alone.

Monday marked a single-day record of 12,600 or more people risking their lives in the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass in Texas as darkness fell on Christmas Eve.

“We are the poorest of the poor of those at the peak of need, those of us who don’t have money to pay for visas or people smugglers,” Villagran said as the last caravan set off.

Up to 10,000 migrants left the Mexican city of Tapachula on Christmas Eve in the country’s largest migrant caravan in 18 months.

Meanwhile, those who made it to the U.S. border were still trying to dangerously cross Eagle Pass into Texas early on Christmas Eve.

Biden spoke with his Mexican counterpart on Thursday ahead of a summit designed to “manage unprecedented migration flows in the Western Hemisphere.”

This comes after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was forced to suspend cross-border rail traffic in the Texas cities of Eagle Pass and El Paso because migrants were traveling on freight trains.

“The two leaders agreed that additional enforcement measures are urgently needed so that ports of entry across our shared border can reopen,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Homeland Security Adviser Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall will also be part of the group heading south to discuss “further actions that can be taken together to address current border issues.”

López Obrador said Friday he would advise his guests to ease sanctions on leftist governments in Cuba and Venezuela and increase aid to Latin America to improve conditions in migrants’ countries of origin.

“This is what we’re going to discuss, it’s not just differences,” he said after his call with Biden.

But he will be under pressure to resume deportations from Mexico that were halted this month after funds ran out.

Mexican security forces did nothing to stop the march from the Guatemalan border.

Among migrants from 24 countries, according to observers, there were up to 3,000 children

Organizer Luis Rey García Villagran said those marching were “the poorest of the poor” and could not afford visas or people smugglers.

Children and pregnant women were among hundreds of people who waded through the cold waters of the Rio Grande under cover of darkness to complete their journey to the United States.

In 2023, there were more than two million illegal crossings of the U.S. border with Mexico.

House Speaker Mike Johnson called on Biden to use executive authority to stem the flow of migrants after Congress failed to reach a deal on border changes sought by Republicans.

He demanded that CBP stop releasing detained migrants before they are given court dates and limit the use of parole, which allows the president to temporarily admit some migrants.

He even called on Biden to suspend all immigration, using his authority under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the president to suspend the entry of any foreign nationals for an indefinite period of time if their entry is deemed “harmful.” ‘ in the interests of the United States.

“Statutory reforms to restore operational control on our southern border must be enacted, but the crisis on our southern border has worsened to the point that serious action can no longer wait.

“It has to start now, and it has to start with you,” he told the president.

Sunday’s caravan is the largest since June 2022, when a group of the same size set off when Biden hosted leaders in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas.

In October, another march took place across Mexico to coincide with a summit organized by López Obrador to discuss the migrant crisis with regional leaders.

A month later, 3,000 migrants blocked the main border crossing with Guatemala for more than 30 hours.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) will meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for crisis talks in Mexico City on Wednesday.

Villagran said about 3,000 children were among the final marchers from 24 countries heading north from the Guatemala border in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Mexican security forces watched the convoy’s departure without interfering.

“We waited here for three or four months with no answer,” said Christian Rivera, traveling alone, leaving behind his wife and child in his native Honduras.

“Hopefully with this march there will be a change and we can get the permission we need to go north.”