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On Sunday, a "migrant caravan" with more than 1,000 people was intercepted by Mexican authorities as it approached the capital of Mexico City. Last week, 55 people were killed when a tractor trailer carrying 166 migrants tipped over in the state of Chiapas.
"I remember the screaming of the people when the trailer overturned — and nothing else, just screaming," Salvin Lanuza, a passenger on the U.S.-bound truck. told The Tico Times of Costa Rica.
These incidents are reflections of record-breaking migration trends, and add to the total of 1,121 people who have died this year attempting to migrate to the U.S., according to the International Organization for Migration.
In response to these tragic events, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has urged U.S. policymakers to review their immigration policies and help address the underlying cause of these migrations — desperation and despair.
"The migration problem cannot be solved by coercive measures, but by opportunities for work and well-being," he said. "People don't leave their villages for pleasure, they do it out of necessity."
According to the National Institute of Migration, recent migration surges have been sparked by poverty, corruption, violence and the after-effects of extreme weather events.
Coming from nations like Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, which often lack the infrastructure to support all their citizens, thousands have chosen to migrate by foot or by bus, risking their lives not just for a "better future" but because staying in their home countries could put them in imminent danger.
"In Guatemala, you can't get ahead," said Esvin Chipel Tzoy, a Guatemalan teenager who was on the bus that crashed. He told The New York Times that he "wanted to go for that American dream."
Erlinda Lopez, who fled Nicaragua with her 10-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, shared a similar sentiment, telling Reuters, "All we want is to reach our destination [the United States] and raise our children. We want to be free."
Mexican President Obrador says if the circumstances that lead to migration persist, not only will more people choose to migrate, but more will be vulnerable to violence, starvation and exploitation.
Following last week's incidents, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees tweeted, "Migratory alternatives and legal avenues are needed to avoid tragedies like this."
The U.S. Border Patrol reported more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2021 fiscal year, the highest annual total on record. Of that number, the vast majority were summarily denied entry without due process.
Despite calls for more humane policies, the U.S. Border Patrol has made use of statutes like Title 42, which allows border agents to quickly expel migrants at the border who come from countries with high levels of coronavirus cases, or "Remain in Mexico," which forces asylum-seekers to await their U.S. hearing dates on Mexican soil.
These policies frustrate many, like Irineo Mujic, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico, who is currently leading a group of 400 migrants across southern Mexico.
"These policies that kill us, that murder us," he told the Associated Press," is what leads to this type of tragedy."
