As Karen reported last week, what is believed to be the largest ever caravan of illegal migrants crossed into Mexico and began the trek northward toward the American border. Initial estimates put the size of the human wave at somewhere between 6,000 and 11,000 people. A few days later, Mexican government officials said that the caravan had already shrunk in size, claiming that there were between 5,000 and 8,000 migrants. It’s unknown whether that was because some had been turned away or some simply gave up and went home. There were likely some in both categories. But now the Mexican government has come up with a plan to shrink the caravan even further by offering 1,000 humanitarian visas to those who are willing to take up residence in Mexico. (Washington Examiner)

The Mexican government will attempt to quell a massive caravan of migrants traveling through the country to the United States’s southern border with the issuance of 1,000 humanitarian visas that would allow only a small number of the migrants to reside and work in the country legally.

A caravan of between 6,000 and 11,000 people departed Tapachula, a city near Mexico’s border with Guatemala, on Monday. Its organizer, Luis Garcia Villagran of the Center for Human Dignity, made the announcement to reporters Tuesday. The number has dropped to between 5,000 and 8,000 just a day into the march, he said.

“Yesterday, we talked to the director of immigration, Paola Rodas. We are awaiting her promise to come through with 1,000 humanitarian visas,” Villagran said, according to an independent reporter who translated from Spanish.

We should give credit where due to the Mexican government for at least making some sort of effort to shrink this caravan and every migrant who abandons their plan to reach the American border is helpful. But 1,000 visas, even if they find that many people who will accept the offer, is really a drop in the bucket. That’s particularly true if the higher estimates are more accurate and there really are closer to 8,000 people in this army.

When Donald Trump was dealing with AMLO on this issue he negotiated for a lot more cooperation from the Mexican government. Federal Mexican troops were dispatched to their southern border to turn people away. Others were apprehended on the road as they made their way north. Mexico’s new position seems far weaker by comparison.

Has Joe Biden actually been in touch with AMLO about doing more to turn this flood back? I realize that they aren’t on the best of terms at the moment because of how badly the White House handled the Summit of the Americas, but it’s a subject that remains in our mutual interest to tackle. If not Biden, has our “Border Czar” Kamala Harris been on top of these developments? I haven’t seen any recent headlines suggesting that she’s been having meetings with them.

The Biden border crisis has already overwhelmed our resources at the southern border to the point where they are shipping illegal immigrants all over the country and releasing them into unsuspecting communities. If another 8,000 show up at once in a couple of weeks there is no way that CBP will be able to deal with those numbers. And we have almost no room left to detain and screen the ones we manage to apprehend. Thousands will likely just stroll into the country and disappear. How many are truly seeking refuge versus those coming here with criminal histories and bad intentions of smuggling children or fentanyl is unknown.

This situation is beyond frustrating and it is unquestionably dangerous. Build the damn wall. Stop spending money on Ukraine’s borders and take care of our own. Fully fund the border patrol and expand the staffing of our immigration courts to handle the backlog. None of these things are impossible, but our open borders president appears to have no interest in cleaning up this mess of his own making.