A group of about 1,200 migrants set out walking before dawn in southern Mexico on Wednesday aiming for the capital where they hoped to legalize their immigration status and find more work opportunities after a long frustrating wait near the Guatemala border.

Cubans made up the majority of the migrants, but there were also people from Honduras, Ecuador, Brazil and Haiti.

Unlike earlier migrant "caravans” with a goal to reach the United States, Wednesday’s group and others over the past year are trying to coerce Mexican authorities into speeding up the process for asylum and get out of southern Mexico where there are few work opportunities.

36-year-old Cuban migrant Orestes Rodríguez William has been in Tapachula, near the border with Guatemala, for three months.

He hoped like many others to get an appointment that would allow him to cross the U.S. border, request asylum and likely be paroled into the U.S. while that process played out.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump has ended that program, stranding tens of thousands of migrants who had already been making their way toward the U.S. border.

Rodríguez decided to stay in Mexico and seek asylum, but despite numerous visits to Mexico’s asylum agency, known as Comar, he still doesn’t have an answer about his status.

"It's very difficult to find work here,” he said.

"Rent is expensive and the conditions are not the best for us."

He hopes things will be better in Mexico City.

The group of migrants appeared to have organized without a leader, but over social platforms, where frustrated migrants rallied to try to walk their way out of southern Mexico.

In the past, Mexican authorities have allowed migrants to walk for a few days and then offer to help with their documents and sometimes transportation.

AP video by Raúl Mendoza Vera