Thousands of Migrants Head Towards US Border Ahead of Blinken's Visit

Mexican President Expresses Willingness to Work with US on Migration Issues

An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 migrants, mainly from Venezuela, Cuba and Mexico, have formed a caravan heading north towards the United States border from the southern Mexican city of Tapachula.
The caravan, the largest in over a year, comes days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to arrive in Mexico City to discuss new agreements to control migration.
The number of people apprehended at the US southern border exceeded two million in both the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, with up to 10,000 migrants arrested per day at the US southwest border this month.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has expressed willingness to work with the US to address migration concerns, but also urged the Biden administration to ease sanctions on leftist governments in Cuba and Venezuela and send more aid to developing countries in Latin America.
In May, López Obrador agreed to take in migrants from countries such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba turned away by the US for not following rules that provided new legal pathways to asylum and other forms of migration.