Thousands join Christmas Eve migrant caravan – the biggest in more than a year – as it treks through Mexico and towards the U.S. border just days before Blinken arrives in the capital to hammer out new agreement to stem surge

The largest migrant caravan in 18 months left Mexico for the US on Christmas Eve, as the number of border crossings continues to decline.

About 10,000 people led by Mexican activist Luis Rey Garcia Villagran left the southern Mexican border town of Tapachula for the long march north, while more of those already at the US border ended their journey this evening.

President Joe Biden pulled Secretary of State Anthony Blinken out of the Middle East crisis on Wednesday for a summit with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, after US authorities registered more than 242,000 migrants in November alone.

There was a record high of 12,600 in a single day on Monday, and more risked their lives in the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass in Texas as darkness fell on Christmas Eve.

“We are the poorest of the poorest of those at the height of need, those of us who have no money to pay for visas or people smugglers,” Villagran said as the last caravan left.

Meanwhile, those who had reached the US border were still attempting to make the dangerous crossing at Eagle Pass in Texas in the early hours of Christmas Eve.

Biden spoke to his Mexican counterpart on Thursday ahead of a summit aimed at “managing unprecedented migration flows in the Western Hemisphere.”

It came after US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had to suspend cross-border train traffic in the Texas cities of Eagle Pass and El Paso because migrants were riding on top of freight trains.

“The two leaders agreed that additional enforcement actions are urgently needed to ensure ports of entry across our shared border can reopen,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall will also be in the party heading south to “discuss further actions that can be taken together to address current border issues.”

On Friday, López Obrador said he would tell his visitors to ease sanctions on left-wing governments in Cuba and Venezuela and increase aid to Latin America to improve conditions in the migrants' home countries.

“That's what we're going to discuss, it's not just a twist,” he said after speaking to Biden.

But he will come under pressure to resume deportations from Mexico, which were halted this month after funds ran out.

Mexican security forces did nothing to stop the march as it departed from the border with Guatemala

As many as 3,000 children were among the migrants from 24 countries counted by observers

Organizer Luis Rey Garcia Villagran said those who marched were the “poorest of the poor” and could not afford visas or human smugglers

Children and pregnant women were among the hundreds who forded the cold waters of the Rio Grande under cover of darkness to complete their journey to the U.S.

In 2023, more than two million illegal crossings of the US border with Mexico took place

House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged Biden to use executive power to stem the flow of migrants after Congress failed to reach an agreement on border changes demanded by Republicans.

He demanded that CBP stop releasing apprehended migrants before they are given a court date and limit the use of parole, which allows the president to temporarily admit certain migrants.

He even urged Biden to suspend all immigration — using his authority under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the president to indefinitely halt the entry of foreign citizens if it allowing them is considered 'harmful'. for American interests.

“Legal reforms intended to restore operational control at our southern border must be implemented, but the crisis at our southern border has deteriorated to such an extent that significant action can no longer wait.

“It has to start now, and it has to start with you,” he told the president.

Sunday's caravan is the largest since June 2022, when a similarly sized group left as Biden hosted leaders in Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas.

In October, another march took off through Mexico, coinciding with a summit organized by López Obrador to discuss the migration crisis with regional leaders.

A month later, 3,000 migrants blocked the main border crossing with Guatemala for more than 30 hours.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken (left) meets with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for crisis talks in Mexico City on Wednesday

Villagran said about 3,000 children were among the last protesters from 24 countries to move north from the Guatemalan border into the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Mexican security forces watched without intervening as the convoy left.

“We have been waiting here for three or four months without an answer,” said Cristian Rivera, who was traveling alone and had left his wife and child in his native Honduras.

“Hopefully with this march there will be change and we can get the permission we need to move north.”