Elon Musk blasts 'staggering' scale of illegal immigration after seeing astonishing footage

Musk/footage of march

Musk responded to the march online

Reuters/Twitter
Holly Bishop

By Holly Bishop


Published: 02/11/2023

- 09:09

Updated: 02/11/2023

- 09:47

5,000 migrants are marching towards the US border

Elon Musk has called the level of illegal immigration into the US “staggering” as he reacted to footage of migrants travelling to America.

In the clip, thousands of asylum seekers are seen marching through a southern Mexican town and along a highway.


The footage, which was posted by account End Wokeness, was captioned: “While they have us distracted, a massive caravan is marching to storm our border. This is not a crisis. It’s an invasion.”

Responding to the video, which was posted on Tuesday and has over 23,000 shares, Musk said: “The scale of illegal immigration across the US southern border is staggering”.

WATCH NOW: Migrants march towards the US

In the footage, the migrants are jubilantly waving and parading their home countries’ flags.

Users replied to Musk’s repost, with some agreeing with his shock.

One said, “This won’t end well”, whilst another deemed the clip “shocking”.

A third added: “The socio-economic consequences of this many people flooding in will be severe.”

However, others criticised Musk, who is not American-born, for his anti-immigration views.

“The world's most wealthy man, a South African who has been welcomed as a US citizen, a man who can live anywhere in the world and knows nothing of poverty or being of refugee status - why would this man be focused on illegal immigration?” a user questioned.

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An image of the Texas National Guard on the US-Mexico borderAn image of the Texas National Guard on the US-Mexico borderREUTERS

Migrants from Central America, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti initiated the trek across Mexico on Monday – setting off from Tapachula, Chiapas.

Some 5,000 set off in hopes of crossing the US border, tired of waiting for the Mexican government to process their refugee applications.

Mexico's National Migration Institute, which is tasked with approving or denying the applications, has been inundated with requests.

Migrants normally face a long wait, sometimes up to months, for their status to be legalised.

In this time, they cannot legally work.

The migrants formed a long line along the highway, escorted by police.

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Migrants crossing the US borderMigrants crossing the US borderReuters

Officers are usually there to prevent them from blocking the entire highway, and keep them from hitching rides from passing cars.

The march is the largest since June 2022, when people took off from the same southern Mexican town.

“We have been traveling for about three months, and we’re going to keep on going,” said Daniel González, from Venezuela. “In Tapachula, nobody helps us.”

He said he is not planning on returning to his home country due to the dire economic situation.

González said Mexico’s strategy is normally to wait for the marchers to get tired and give up, returning to their home nations.

The southwestern border of the US has been flooded with migrants from South America. By September 420,000 migrants had passed across the border.

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