More than 2,000 migrants are heading to US in caravan, official says

(CNN) - A group of about 2,300 people left the southern Mexican city of Tapachula on Monday, heading north, according to an official with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The official told CNN the group comprises mainly Venezuelans and includes migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba, El Salvador, and Honduras.

In a bulletin, a regional immigration group, Colectivo de Observación y Monitoreo de Derechos Humanos en el SE Mexicano, said that the group included principally families and children “who demand access to migration procedures and dignified treatment by the authorities.”

Tapachula, located just across the border from Guatemala, is a popular way station for migrants traveling from Central America.

Under Mexican immigration laws, migrants and asylum-seekers are often made to wait in the area for several months with limited work opportunities.

This caravan gathered partially in protest of immigration policies, and it would be weeks before they arrived at the U.S. southern border, assuming they all did. Caravans often dwindle in size as they move north.

Caravans of migrants have left Tapachula regularly in the past year, although this current group appears to be one of the largest.

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