Migrant Caravans Head to U.S. Border in Early Test for Biden

  • Ferocious hurricanes in Central America rendered many homeless
  • Biden wants to reverse Trump’s policies but not open border
Residents inspect destroyed houses in the coastal neighborhood of El Muelle after Hurricane Iota made landfall in Bilwi, Nicaragua.Photographer: Carlos Herrera/Bloomberg
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President-elect Joe Biden says his priorities when he takes office next month will be the pandemic and economic recovery, but he’s facing another crisis that won’t wait: a wave of desperate migrants on his southern border.

Two ruinous hurricanes that wrecked and flooded swathes of Central America last month have increased the number of families planning a risky journey northward. And after a year of travel bans and soaring unemployment, demand to reach the U.S. was already high.