VILLA COMALTITLAN, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Thousands of migrants and asylum seekers moved slowly north across the southern Mexican state of Chiapas on Tuesday in a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, one day before top U.S. officials planned to visit Mexico to discuss migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas will visit Mexico to meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The officials will discuss “unprecedented irregular migration in the Western Hemisphere and identify ways Mexico and the United States will address border security challenges,” according to a statement from State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting comes a week after U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Lopez Obrador by telephone, during which the two leaders said that more\u00a0enforcement<\/a>\u00a0was needed at their shared frontier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Wednesday, migrants and asylum seekers, many carrying small children, walked along the highway near the southern Mexican city of Villa Comaltitl\u00e1n. Some held a banner reading “Exodus from poverty.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rosa, from El Salvador, said she hoped the officials would ease the suffering of migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We are looking for something better for our children and our families,” she said as she walked. “I hope this touches their hearts,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Migrants and asylum seekers transit through Mexico to the U.S. to escape violence<\/a>, economic distress and negative impacts of climate change, according the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n