Honduran migrants "need to understand they're not going to be able to come into the United States immediately", NBC News cited an unnamed senior Biden transition team official as saying on Sunday.
"The situation at the border isn't going to be transformed overnight. There's help on the way, but now is not the time to make the journey", the official added.
The individual referred to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the incoming Biden administration's efforts to restart the processing of migrants and asylum seekers on the nation's southern border, which will take plenty of time.
"We have to provide a message that help and hope is on the way, but coming right now does not make sense for their own safety […] while we put into place processes that they may be able to access in the future", the official pointed out.
The remarks come after a caravan with an estimated 9,000 Honduran migrants passed through the Guatemalan border last week.
#Honduras | Thousands of people make up the migrant caravan that left Honduras for the United States.
— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) January 15, 2021
Since Thursday, they met at the San Pedro Sula terminal to head to the border with Guatemala and continue their journey north.
📹@GildateleSUR pic.twitter.com/S9gFomhz64
The migrant rights group Pueblo Sin Fronteras ["People Without Borders"] said the caravan expects the Biden administration to provide migrants with a warmer welcome than the outgoing Trump administration offered.
The group asked the incoming Biden administration to "honour its commitments", apparently referring to the president-elect's previous promises to reverse most of Trump's immigration policies.
"We recognise the importance of the incoming government of the United States having shown a strong commitment to migrants and asylum seekers, which presents an opportunity for the governments of Mexico and Central America to develop policies and a migration management that respect and promote the human rights of the population in mobility", Pueblo Sin Fronteras said in a statement.
President-elect Joe Biden earlier indicated that he would eliminate the Trump administration's policies on immigrants, end prolonged detention and family separations of migrants in America, halt funding for expanded building of a wall on the US-Mexican border, and revive Obama-era immigration policies.
It's worth noting that cases of family separation also occurred under the Obama administration, with US President Donald Trump saying in 2019, "We had separations. When I became president, President Obama had a separation policy. I didn't have it".
Biden, in turn, vowed to create "a fair and humane immigration system", pledging help in addressing the causes of immigration that drive people from Latin America to the US.
Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan, for his part, slammed the incoming administration's rhetoric, which he said comes as one migrant group has "already gotten through the Guatemala border".
This was preceded by POTUS warning of far-reaching consequences if his immigration policies are scrapped.
In the autumn of 2018, caravans of migrants from Central America seeking asylum began moving toward the United States through Mexico. President Donald Trump called the surge of arrivals a "crisis" and declared a national emergency in February 2019 in an attempt to secure funds to build a wall on the southern border of the US.
