Many Haitian migrants leave Tapachula caravan, now seeking safety cities in Mexico

Many migrants leaving Tapachula on foot said the U.S. is no longer within reach

Hundreds of migrants, most of them from Haiti, departed the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on foot Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. They said they were looking for better living conditions in other parts of Mexico after weeks and months in a town that many caravans have used as a starting point on their way north.

While migrant caravans that have left Tapachula in the past often set their sights on reaching the U.S. border, many of the people leaving on Tuesday said they no longer believed that goal was achievable. Several migrants described how U.S. asylum restrictions, which they associated with the Trump administration, had reduced their prospects.

Instead of continuing toward the United States, some migrants said they were now focused on staying inside Mexico long enough to build a life and pursue protection through Mexico’s asylum system. They said large Mexican cities offered a better chance of finding work and of filing asylum claims than remaining in Tapachula, where they have been waiting.

Some migrants said they had not received responses to their asylum applications while in Tapachula, despite spending months there. For those applicants, the departure from the border city reflected not only the limits they saw on U.S. options, but also frustration with the pace of decision-making after extended time in the area near Guatemala.

Jerry Gabriel, a 29-year-old Haitian migrant, articulated that shift directly, saying: “The United States is no longer an option for us” and adding, “We only want to make it to Mexico City, Monterrey, Tijuana or another place where we might be able to live.”

The AP reported that earlier this year another group of several hundred migrants left Tapachula on foot, but that caravan ended after about 12 days when migrants made a deal with Mexican immigration officers. During the Sheinbaum administration, which began in October 2024, the AP said there have been 18 migrant caravans leaving Tapachula, none of which has made it past the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

The AP also said Haitians account for a quarter of asylum petitions filed in Mexico, citing Mexico’s national agency for refugees. It reported that 127,000 Haitians filed asylum petitions in Mexico between 2020 and 2024.