Honduran migrant caravan heading to US: reports
Joe Biden has pledged to abolish many of the immigration policies of President Trump
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Hundreds of Hondurans formed a caravan bound for the U.S. on Wednesday after two hurricanes wrecked and flooded areas of Central America last month, according to a report.
The migrants left the northern city of San Pedro Sula on foot for the Guatemalan border after Hurricanes Eta and Iota impacted infrastructure, homes, and crops and killed about 100 people in Honduras.
“We lost everything, we have no choice but to go to the United States,” an unidentified middle-aged man in the caravan told Honduran television, according to Reuters.
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The caravan, if it grows, could be the first major one to hit the road since the 2020 presidential election. It's seen as a new challenge to efforts limiting illegal immigration from Central America ahead of a new administration.
Joe Biden has pledged to abolish many of the immigration policies of President Trump, who is due to leave office on Jan. 20, and had made curbing illegal immigration a top priority.
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Jose Luis Gonzalez, a coordinator of the Guatemala Red Jesuita con Migrantes, a non-governmental organization, said many migrants are encouraged to make the trip and test the Biden administration.
"When there is a change in government in the U.S. or Mexico, caravans start to move because they are testing the waters to see how authorities respond," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "What they see is that the one who said he was going to build a wall and hated Latinos is on his way out."
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Gonzalez expects the number of caravans to increase in the coming weeks, following the hurricanes, a year of travel bans, and soaring unemployment.
"People are no longer scared of the coronavirus. They're going hungry, they've lost everything and some towns are still flooded," he added, according to the Inquirer.
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Authorities in Guatemala warned the migrants that they needed passports and negative coronavirus tests before they could enter the country, reports said.