A new migrant wave pleads for answers in Mexico

A new migrant wave pleads for answers in Mexico

Guatemala and Honduras are deploying more soldiers to prevent migrants from trekking north to the United States, amid growing desperation among those seeking to cross and signs of new caravans forming.

Matthew Larotonda reports.

Cries of desperation on Mexico's southern border.

This is the town of Tapachula, where migrants who have crossed over from Guatemala are demanding humanitarian visas.

Mexico's national guard is deployed in full riot gear.

Guatemala and Honduras have now announced they're deploying their own troops, after news surfaced that new caravans of migrants are forming in Central America with the eventual goal of reaching the United States.

''We just want them to give us an answer," this woman says, who is originally from Cuba.

"We just want answers, without excuses." This man, also from Cuba, says "Nobody will leave until we get some answers, to see what happens to us." The new caravans forming have caught the attention of U.S. officials, which have called on the Central American countries to stop them.

In recent years many migrants have chosen to form up in massive caravans instead of trekking alone, because staying in a group helps protect them from criminals who would prey on them.

Luis Rey Garcia Villagran works for the migrant support center in the town.

"Human mobility has to do with the serious problems that are occurring in their countries and that is why people are moving more than ever.

(...) People are literally drowning.

The problems with injustice, the problems with insecurity continue as well as problems with organized gangs who capture and kill people who are over there." On Friday (January 8) a federal court in California blocked a last-ditch effort from the outgoing Trump administration to dramatically harden the U.S. asylum system even further.

It would have cut off most access to migrants who reach the border, and broadly deny some types of asylum claims including domestic abuse and gang violence.