Historically large migrant caravan crosses illegally into El Paso

The caravan consisted of nearly 20 migrant buses escorted by Mexican police shortly before they crossed into El Paso.
Migrant caravan, Rio Grande river, Dec. 12, 2022
By Madeleine Hubbard

One of the largest illegal border crossings in U.S. history occurred this past weekend – a caravan of about 1,000 migrants on nearly 20 busses into the Texas border city of El Paso.

The trip was funded by the Mexican government, The New York Times reported Monday.

The buses, escorted by Mexican police, carried the mostly Nicaraguan migrants on Sunday afternoon into Juárez in Mexico. Hundreds of other migrants joined in Juárez to cross the Rio Grande river on foot into El Paso.

The El Paso migrant processing center is over capacity, as are many homeless center locations in the city.

Customs and Border Patrol officials encountered a record number of 2.4 million migrants last fiscal year.

More migration is expected with the end next week of Title 42, the pandemic-era public health policy that allowed the U.S to quickly expelled many migrants.