‘Migrant caravan’ heading to US southern boarder
Almost eight thousand migrants are making their way through Mexico in the hope of reaching the United States. They're the most recent high-profile examples of a crisis on the US southern border that could shape next year's Presidential election. The US Secretary of State has arrived in Mexico City to meet with the Mexican president about the growing migration crisis.
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00:00 We are talking about extraordinary numbers on the US southern border.
00:06 There's one particular caravan of migrants that is receiving a lot of attention because
00:11 it's a particularly evocative example.
00:14 Between 6,000 and 8,000 people we believe are part of that particular group, including
00:18 many women and children.
00:19 It's making its way up from the southern tip of Mexico heading north.
00:24 And it should be remembered that although these people are coming from Mexico, the vast
00:28 majority are not actually from that country.
00:30 They're from other parts of Central America, but also migrants from places like Africa
00:34 and Asia who have flown in to either South or Central America, with them the hope of
00:40 making their way to the US southern border and then into the United States.
00:44 It's estimated about 6,000 people are arriving each day on the southern border, and over
00:49 the past year about 2.5 million people have arrived at that border.
00:53 Local authorities say this is a crisis and there does need to be a political solution.
00:58 The Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has arrived for these discussions with the Mexican
01:03 president.
01:04 Last week, the US President Joe Biden spoke with his Mexican counterpart where they both
01:08 agreed more enforcement does need to be put in place on that frontier.
01:13 But this is an intractable problem that has bedevilled the United States for many years,
01:20 but it does seem to be worsening.
01:21 And what has also changed in the United States is the domestic political environment.
01:27 We've seen, for example, in New York, which had previously seen itself as a sanctuary
01:31 city, a place where migrants were welcomed, they've received huge numbers of migrants,
01:36 particularly from Texas, where the governor there has actually flown people to New York
01:42 City.
01:43 And the New York City says it's spent over $3 billion over the past two years trying
01:46 to care for the migrants that it's already received.
01:49 And the New York City Mayor, Eric Adams, says that the city cannot deal with any more.
01:54 We are going into a presidential election year here in the United States, and that southern
01:58 border is a major political consideration.
02:02 And the US President will be hoping that he's able to make some headway on this issue because
02:07 he doesn't want it to be front of mind for voters when it comes to that 2024 poll.
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