Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Monday used the amassing of a huge caravan of Central American and Haitian migrants in southern Mexico to scorn Democrats — suggesting the party primarily viewed them as potential voters.
In a tweet, Cruz linked to a story and pictures of the massive gathering.
"What Joe Biden and the Democrats see when they look at caravans of illegal immigrants: Future Democrat voters," he wrote.
According to Reuters, hundreds of Central American and Haitian migrants formed a new caravan Friday in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, near the Guatemala border, and began walking north toward the United States.
The migrants said they wanted to leave Chiapas as they had not been given humanitarian visas promised by Mexico or transferred to other parts of the country where they would have better living conditions, Reuters reported.
The throng of about 1,000 migrants, including many children, began walking from Tapachula, a city bordering Guatemala, to Mapastepec, about 62.1 miles away, where they planned to join another group of migrants, Reuters reported.
Mexico's National Migration Institute (INM) began transferring hundreds of migrants Thursday to other parts of the country after they had spent months waiting for a response to requests for refuge or humanitarian visas.
The migrants were also offered documents for a temporary legal stay in Mexico allowing them to look for jobs — and preventing a similar walk toward the U.S. border, Reuters reported.
Those who were not transferred elsewhere or get humanitarian visas joined those heading toward the United States, the news outlet reported.
"We need to work to support our family, and that is why we decided to do this, to leave in the caravan," one Haitian migrant, accompanied by his wife and family members, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
Luis Garcia, one of the caravan organizers, told the news agency about 1,500 people are expected to head north from Mapastepec on Tuesday. In the past, migrants have refused to accept.
The National Human Rights Commission last week said it discovered in 2020 at least three Haitian asylum seekers in Mexico were deported to their country.
In March, Cruz was a leading voice of outrage at illegal immigrants crossings at the southern border — and demanded the Biden administration restore a Trump-era policy requiring migrants file for asylum and wait in Mexico while their claims are filed.
After visiting a facility where migrants were housed after crossing in Mission, Texas, Cruz described seeing toddlers and other young children "lying side by side, touching each other" and covered by silvery emergency blankets.
"The Biden administration wants to hide what is going on here," he said at the time.