Will the departure of another migrant caravan heading for the US border affect negotiations over funding for the US border wall?

Another migrant caravan is on its way to the United States. The caravan is coming from Honduras and following the same route used by thousands last year in three previous migrant caravans. The group set off with about 600 people, but like previous caravans, it’s possible the group’s size will grow as it travels north and gains more migrants hoping for asylum in the US.

Gathering and departing from the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, the group set out under the cover of darkness Monday night. As the Associated Press reported, 600 migrants first gathered at a bus station in the drizzling rain, waiting for the buses that would convey the women and the children. Thirty buses arrived in the night and conveyed 300 children and women towards the border of Guatemala. After the first 300 departed in the buses, the second 300 set off in a walk to head for Agua Caliente, a border town. Fearing that his daughter may suffer from the steady rain, a man begged journalists who witnessed the movement for an umbrella. Others begged local store owners for food and water to sustain them on the dangerous journey.

After the caravan of 600 migrants moved from the bus station, other migrants arrived, suggesting another caravan may soon commence on another journey to the United States. One woman among the first group told the AP her nine-year-old girl was raped on several occasions in Honduras, and now suffering from medical complications. She is heading to America with her daughter and 13-year-old son.

She told the AP she would ask US authorities for asylum or refugee status, “because it’s not possible to live in Honduras anymore.”

With the US on its 25th day of a federal government shutdown largely due to an impasse over funding for a border wall, the approaching caravan is sure to add tension to an already politically charged atmosphere in Washington.

It is not known at this stage if the coming caravan will be heading for Tijuana, the Mexican border city where thousands of migrants from earlier caravans have been stranded since late 2018 on their way to the US.