XINHUA

Honduras is preparing for the arrival this week of at least 1,900 nationals deported from Mexico for trying to enter illegally on their way to the United States, the Honduran Ambassador to Mexico Alden Rivera said Tuesday, Jan. 21.

Rivera said Mexican authorities said two groups of Hondurans attempted to sneak into southern Mexico from neighboring Guatemala at two different border points: one in the southern state of Chiapas and another in southeast Tabasco.

“Immigration authorities detained a significant number” of Hondurans, said Rivera.

Honduras’ deputy foreign affairs minister for consular and immigration affairs, Nelly Jerez, said the first flight carrying 110 deported nationals was expected to arrive later in the day from Tabasco.

Starting Wednesday, Jan. 22, and through Friday, Jan. 24, some 500 deported nationals are expected to arrive daily by bus, she said.

The latest migrant caravan heading toward the United States set out from the north Honduran town of San Pedro Sula before daybreak on Jan. 15.

At the end of 2018 and in 2019, waves of migrant caravans succeeded in crossing into Mexico and amassing at the U.S. border, raising tensions between Mexico and the United States.

The two countries later agreed to bolster border security to promote the orderly entry of migrants.