A caravan of several thousand Latin American migrants, including many from Venezuela, began slowly winding its way north on Monday, June 6, from Tapachula, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, in the hopes of reaching the U.S. border just as the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, California, concludes.

According to some estimates, the caravan is the largest to cross Mexico in more than two years, with at least 15,000 migrants, according to Mexico’s National Institute for Migration (INM).

A flood of migrant caravans, mostly comprised of Central Americans, also traveled across Mexico toward the U.S. border in 2018 and 2019, but this phenomenon was reduced during the covid-19 pandemic.

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce a regional pact on migration during the conclusion of the summit on Friday, June 10.