About 2,000 migrants begin a Holy Week walk in southern Mexico to raise awareness of their plight

By EDGAR H. CLEMENTE
Associated Press

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — About 2,000 migrants have begun walking in southern Mexico in what has become a traditional demonstration during Holy Week before Easter to draw attention to their plight. They left a town near the Guatemalan border and are heading to Mexico’s capital. They want to highlight the dangers they face including robberies, sexual assaults, extortion and kidnapping. Mexico has practiced a containment strategy in recent years that aims to keep migrants in southern Mexico far from the U.S. border. Migrants can languish there for months trying to regularize their status through asylum or other means.