Familiar drive pushes migrant caravan through Mexico

After three days of walking along a scorching highway in southern Mexico, a couple thousand migrants decided to rest here, receive medical attention for badly blistered feet, wash clothing in the river and doze in any shade they could find

HUIXTLA, Mexico -- After three days of walking along a scorching highway in southern Mexico, a couple thousand migrants decided to rest here Tuesday, receive medical attention for badly blistered feet, wash clothing in the river and doze in any shade they could find.

Nitza Maldonado and Omar Rodríguez sprawled on the sidewalk beside a local church with their 6-year-old son. The Honduran family had paid a smuggler $12,000 last year to get to the United States, but they were nabbed in Texas and deported.

Due to the pandemic, they had lost their jobs there — she as an assistant at a law firm and he as a worker in a laundry. Back in Honduras, they faced unemployment and debts from their failed attempt to migrate so they decided to leave again on their own.

Sleeping on the ground and sometimes eating only one meal a day, they decided the risks of rough handling or deportation by Mexican authorities were worth joining the large group effort to walk north.