Thousands join migrant caravan in Mexico ahead of Blinken visit
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00:00 This newest caravan has been dubbed the Exodus from Poverty.
00:05 7,000 migrants, most of them Latin American, set off from Tapachula in the far south of
00:10 Mexico headed towards the United States.
00:14 They spent Christmas night sleeping on scraps of cardboard or plastic in tents or on the
00:19 bare ground.
00:20 "I'm used to spending Christmas dinner with my family, not in the street as we did yesterday."
00:30 The migrants include mostly single adults, but also entire families passing through Mexico
00:36 to reach the U.S. border.
00:38 They left on December 24, angry and frustrated at having to wait weeks or months for documents
00:44 that might allow them to continue their journey by bus.
00:47 "Today the poorest of the poorest of the poorest are walking.
00:54 Those of us who are on the cusp of need, those of us are walking.
00:59 Those of us who do not have money to pay for visas, who do not have money to pay for a
01:03 coyote, those of us who do not have money to pay for a smuggler."
01:10 This is the largest migratory caravan to the United States in over a year.
01:15 In recent weeks, U.S. authorities have been arresting as many as 10,000 migrants per day
01:21 at the southern border.
01:23 To cope with this influx, border crossings have been closed in Texas, Arizona and California,
01:29 hampering U.S.-Mexican trade.
01:31 A bilateral meeting is scheduled for Wednesday in Mexico City between Mexican President Andres
01:37 Manuel Lopez Obrador and a U.S. delegation headed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
01:44 Obrador has pledged to step up measures to stem the flow of migrants coming from his
01:48 country's border with Guatemala.