Donald Trump Wins, Thousands of Mexican Migrants' Hopes Shattered

UNSPLASH/Barbara Zandoval ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Thousands of migrants traveling in a caravan in Mexico are grappling with what to do next after former U.S. President Donald Trump, who ran on an anti-immigration platform, won a second term.

After hearing that Trump had won, many migrants in the caravan of about 3,000 that set off from the southern city of Tapachula on Tuesday, Nov. 5, lost hope about their chances of a new life in the United States.

"I was hoping (Kamala Harris) would win, but it didn't happen," said Valerie Andrade, a Venezuelan migrant traveling with the caravan from Chiapas to Oaxaca in southern Mexico.

Andrade, along with her husband, and like more than 7 million other Venezuelans, left their crisis-stricken country in search of better prospects.

Trump won Tuesday's election after a campaign that promised mass deportations and a swift return of deportations to Mexico.

His proposed immigration policies also include ending citizenship rights for the children of undocumented immigrants.

During his previous administration, between 2017 and 2021, Trump implemented policies that left hundreds of thousands of migrants stranded in camps along the Mexican border, changing U.S. immigration policy.

A Chiapas state security spokesman told Reuters that as the caravan continues to move north, some families have chosen to return to Tapachula, near the Guatemalan border.

But for many, the journey north continues.

Venezuelan immigrant Jeilimar remains hopeful that his appointment to seek asylum through the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) application, CBP One, will be granted before Trump takes office in January 2025.

“God willing, I will get that appointment,” he said, as he traveled with his six-year-old daughter, intending to reach the United States.

Human rights activists say migrants will continue to arrive at the U.S. southern border.

“People will find new paths, it will be more dangerous, but it won’t stop them,” said Heyman Vázquez, a Catholic priest and pro-migrant activist in Chiapas.