After three and a half years of record illegal immigration at the southern border, another migrant caravan is headed toward the United States.
With just 15 days until the presidential election, the large group of asylum seekers is trying to see if they can enter the country before a potentially major change in border policies.
It’s just the latest example of the widespread influence the 2024 US election will have on the world.
About 2,000 migrants left Mexico’s southern border to head to the United States worried about what will happen after the November elections, according to the Associated Press.
A caravan of approximately 2,000 migrants is heading toward the southern border of the United States with just two weeks left before the 2024 presidential election.
Venezuelan migrant Josman Ramos told the AP: ‘Whoever wins should not close the doors to us, they should give us the support we need, because we are all really going through a bad time.’
If Vice President Kamala Harris wins, Americans expect more of the same open border policies.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, if he wins a non-consecutive term in 2024, would return to a tougher policy that would close the border and initiate widespread deportations of those living in the United States illegally.
“We will carry out the largest deportation of criminals in American history,” Trump said during a Sept. 18 rally in New York City, something he has said during many campaign speeches.
While many asylum seekers are fleeing oppressive governments and dangerous living conditions, they are headed to a country where a majority of voters say they want stricter policies to prevent the flow of migrants across the southern border.
Both Harris and Trump have promised to implement stricter policies, but Republicans believe Harris would maintain current lax laws.
“Those who cross our borders illegally will be detained, deported and prohibited from re-entering for five years,” the vice president said in her Sept. 27 speech in the border state of Arizona.
Immigrants and asylum seekers are worried about what will happen in the US elections, as both candidates promise to strengthen the southern border.
Harris was named “border czar” by President Joe Biden, but the vice president has faced widespread criticism for his handling of the crisis.
Since Biden took office, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has encountered approximately 8.5 million migrants seeking asylum or illegally crossing the southern border into the United States.
Trump has made immigration, illegal immigration and the crimes committed by these individuals a centerpiece of his campaign since he first ran for president in 2016 and promises to restore order if he wins another term.
This comes despite CBP reporting the lowest border crossing numbers since 2020 with just 54,000 apprehensions in September.