Tapachula, MEXICO—Wherever there is a shaded patch of ground in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula, where the heat from the sun regularly reaches 95 degrees F, one can see tents full of women and children—some as simple as lean-to’s made from black garbage bags. At night, those who are even less fortunate sleep out in parks, on sidewalks and in public squares.
Tens of thousands of migrants, many of them recognizable from the plastic cords they wear around their necks to keep their identification papers close and safe, fill every corner of the city, nearly all of them hoping to eventually reach the United States. In the past few months, thousands have left Tapachula daily, often heading north in caravans. The majority have been brought back by Mexican officials, some of them multiple times.
Immediately following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election in early November, there was a brief rush for the border, explained by some experts as a push by smugglers and migrants to arrive there before Trump—who is expected to further restrict U.S. migration policy—returns to the White House. Since then, however, arrivals at the U.S. southern border have dropped and are now lower than at any point since President Joe Biden assumed office.