![]() The migrants made it only as far as the town of Alvaro Obregon, about 9 miles (14 kilometers) from Tapachula, before stopping to settle down and rest for the remainder of the day, after having walked from around dawn. Some migrants carried banners or crosses reading “Government Crime” and “The Government Killed Them.” “We are also asking that these jails be ended, and that the National Immigration Institute be dissolved.” "In this Viacrucis, we are asking the government that justice be done to the killers, for them to stop hiding high-ranking officials," Mújica said in Tapachula before the long walk began. ![]() ![]() This year’s mass walk began well after Holy Week had ended, but Mújica, a leader of the Pueblos Sin Fronteras activist group, called it a “Viacrucis,” or stations of the cross procession, and some migrants carried wooden crosses. In 2018 a minority of those involved wound up traveling all the way to the U.S. The roots of the migrant caravan phenomenon began years ago when activists organized processions - often with a religious theme - during Holy Week to dramatize the hardships and needs of migrants. Mújica called the immigration detention centers “jails.” Organizer Irineo Mújica said the migrants are demanding the dissolving of the country’s immigration agency, whose officials have been blamed - and some charged with homicide - in the March 27 fire. Argueta said that when migrants look for work in Tapachula, “they give us jobs, perhaps not humiliating, but the one the Mexicans don't want to do, hard work that pays very little.”
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