AP News reports that some migrants stopped during Saturday's operation were bused back to cities in southern Mexico while others were offered transit papers.
After Trump declared that a 25 percent tariff on Mexican imports would remain in place until the country took more action to stop illegal emigration into the US, he wrote that Sheinbaum had agreed to his terms on Wednesday of last week. Sheinbaum also posted on her social media that day that "migrants and caravans are taken care of before they reach the border."
The first caravan that was stopped started its journey from Southern Mexico on November 5 and included up to 2,500 migrants walking on foot. Once they were apprehended by immigration officials, they were offered free bus rides to other cities in Mexico.
In a statement Saturday, the National Immigration Institute said the migrants voluntarily accepted bus rides “to various areas where there is medical assistance and where their migratory status will be reviewed,” and said “upon accepting (the rides), they said they no longer wanted to face the risks along their way.”
The second caravan set out on November 20 and contained around 1,500 migrants. Authorities reportedly offered them a type of transit visa that would allow them to travel across Mexico for 20 days.
A pro-immigration activist named Luis García Villagrán said the dispersal of the caravans at the hands of authorities appeared to be part of “an agreement between the president of Mexico and the president of the United States.”
