TAPACHULA, Chiapas — A group calling itself "Fe y Esperanza" (Faith and Hope) resumed its trek north from this Guatemala-border city on the night of Sunday, September 27, 2026, according to EFE, walking through rain generated by Tropical Storm Rachel off Mexico's Pacific coast. The Spanish news agency counted more than 600 participants while U.S. coverage, Fox News says that the group numbers in the hundreds.
The marchers set off from Parque Bicentenario, the Tapachula park where the group had been staying since it arrived. They shielded their meager belongings with black plastic bags. Among them, an Ecuadorian father steered a stroller carrying one of his three children through the night.
Who Is Walking, and From Where
The journey began on September 20 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a departure date that U.S. Border Patrol confirmed. After crossing Guatemala, about 300 people, most of them Honduran, reached Tapachula days later following a walk of roughly 40 kilometers that took about twelve hours.
The group then nearly doubled. Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Ecuadorians and Haitians who had been stuck along Mexico's southern border joined the Hondurans. Those are the five nationalities EFE identified among the marchers.
Why So Many Joined
Money worries drive most of the people EFE interviewed. José Zelaya, a Honduran from San Pedro Sula traveling with seven relatives, wants to reach the United States so he can support the children and mother he left behind. He said nothing guides the caravan beyond hunger and need.
Others have stopped aiming at the U.S. border. Vinicio Obonaga, an Ecuadorian father of three, spent two months in Tapachula waiting on a case with Mexico's refugee commission and a humanitarian-visa request with immigration authorities. Nothing came back. He now hopes to reach Monterrey, in northern Mexico, to seek permanent residency and work, and he described moving in a large group as the only way out of Tapachula.
A Guatemalan mother who withheld her name for security reasons had first planned to settle in central Mexico. An attempted kidnapping changed that plan, and she joined the caravan bound for the United States instead. She called group travel better and quicker, and said it keeps immigration agents from catching you.
The caravan is following the Pacific coastal highway across Chiapas, a stretch where sun, downpours and foot injuries have already thinned out earlier groups. The previous caravan to leave the border area fell apart in southern Mexico earlier this month after its members took up an offer from Mexican immigration authorities.
Washington Is Watching
The Department of Homeland Security told Fox News that Border Patrol is coordinating with partner governments to follow the group's movements. The agency said the border has stayed closed for sixteen months, declared that the era of "catch and release" has ended, and warned that anyone who tries to cross unlawfully will be taken into custody, charged and deported.
The latest border figures put the caravan in perspective. Border Patrol agents recorded 8,870 migrant encounters along the Southwest border in August, down from 9,296 in July, according to Customs and Border Protection data. At that monthly pace, by our calculation, a group of 600-plus people would equal roughly two days of encounters.
What to Watch
The near-term test is whether Mexican immigration officers let the walkers continue or, as with the last group, offer them transportation and paperwork. The trip to the nearest U.S. border crossings exceeds 1,500 kilometers by road, Infobae reports, and recent caravans have not held together over such a distance.
