Hundreds of migrants mount protest in southern Mexico in bid to legalize status

A radical of astir 1,200 migrants acceptable retired walking earlier dawn successful southern Mexico on Wednesday aiming for the superior wherever they hoped to legalize their immigration status and find much enactment opportunities aft a agelong frustrating hold adjacent the Guatemala border.

Cubans made up the bulk of the migrants, but determination were besides radical from Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil and Haiti.

Unlike earlier migrant "caravans" with a extremity to scope the United States, Wednesday's radical and others implicit the past twelvemonth are trying to coerce Mexican authorities into speeding up the process for asylum and get retired of confederate Mexico wherever determination are fewer enactment opportunities.

Cuban migrant Losiel Sánchez and his woman arrived successful Tapachula, adjacent the borderline with Guatemala, successful November. They had hoped to get an assignment done a U.S. authorities app called CBP One that would let them to transverse the U.S. border, petition asylum and apt beryllium paroled into the U.S. portion that process played out.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump has ended that program, stranding tens of thousands of migrants who had already been making their mode toward the U.S. border. Sánchez decided to enactment successful Mexico and question asylum, but contempt galore visits to Mexico's asylum agency, known arsenic Comar, the mates inactive doesn't person an reply astir their status.

He said helium was scammed by idiosyncratic claiming to beryllium a lawyer who promised to assistance velocity them done the process.

"Everything is costly and I can't wage rent," said Sánchez, who hopes to person amended luck successful Mexico City. "There's nary work, they don't privation to springiness you enactment if you don't person papers."

Anery Sosa, different Cuban migrant, has been successful Tapachula for year. Her effort to get asylum was derailed erstwhile idiosyncratic stole her documents. She had a girl with a Mexican and hopes to find idiosyncratic to instrumentality attraction of her during the time truthful that she tin work. Her husband's net unsocial don't screen rent and food, she said.

The radical of migrants appeared to person organized without a person implicit societal platforms wherever frustrated migrants rallied to effort to locomotion their mode retired of confederate Mexico. In the past, Mexican authorities person allowed migrants to locomotion for a fewer days and past connection to assistance with their documents and sometimes transportation.