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US-bound Migrants Reach Central Mexican City of Irapuato 


U.S.-bound migrants from Central America travel inside a chicken truck as they head for Irapuato, Mexico, Nov. 11, 2018.
U.S.-bound migrants from Central America travel inside a chicken truck as they head for Irapuato, Mexico, Nov. 11, 2018.

Migrants from Central American countries are moving on toward the United States, sometimes with the help of drivers traveling north.

A caravan arrived Sunday in Irapuato, an agricultural city about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Queretaro, where the group had spent Saturday night.

Although Mexican law enforcement is not providing transportation for the caravan, police are helping them find vehicles for rides.

The government of Queretaro said in a tweet that 6,531 migrants had moved through the state between Friday and Saturday and 5,771 of them departed Sunday morning from the shelters they were using.

Although the caravan is over 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from the U.S. border, the route taken indicates that migrants are eyeing the Mexican city of Tijuana across the border from the U.S. city of San Diego.

Migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Guatemala wait at bridge between Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas for immigration officials to allow them to turn themselves in and ask for asylum in US, Nov. 12, 2018.
Migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Guatemala wait at bridge between Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas for immigration officials to allow them to turn themselves in and ask for asylum in US, Nov. 12, 2018.

Many of the migrants, who have been on the road for weeks, say they were forced to leave their countries of origin because of poverty, gang violence and political instability. They are primarily from the Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

The migrants became a campaign issue in U.S. midterm elections, and President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of over 5,000 military troops to the border to prevent them from entering the United States illegally.

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