Some 5,000 migrants set out on foot from Mexico’s southern border, tired of long waits for visas

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — About 5,000 migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba, and Haiti set out on foot from Mexico's southern border Monday, walking north toward the United States.

The migrants complained that processing for refugee or exit visas takes too long at Mexico's main migrant processing centre in the city of Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border.

Under Mexico's overwhelmed migration system, people seeking such visas often wait for weeks or months, without being able to work.

The migrants formed a long line Monday along the highway, escorted at times by police.

The police are usually there to prevent them from blocking the entire highway, and sometimes keep them from hitching rides.

Monday's march was among the largest since June 2022.

Migrant caravans in 2018 and 2019 drew far greater attention.

But with as many as 10,000 migrants showing up at the US border in recent weeks, Monday's march is now just a drop in the bucket.

“We have been travelling for about three months, and we're going to keep on going,” said Daniel González, from Venezuela. “In Tapachula, nobody helps us.”

Returning to Venezuela is not an option, he said, because the economic situation there is getting worse.

In the past, he said, Mexico's tactic was largely to wait for the marchers to get tired, and then offer them rides back to their home countries or to smaller, alternative processing centres.

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