Deported Cuban from the U.S. to Mexico joins migrant caravan and leaves Tapachula: "It's a prison for humans."

A Cuban who decided to leave Tapachula on foot alongside the migrant caravan "Dreams Without Borders" described his stay in that southern Mexican city as an experience of confinement, precariousness, and "psychological punishment."

"This is a prison for humans. What’s here in Tapachula, they don't let you go anywhere," declared Francisco Gómez Toro before the cameras of Reuters.

Gómez Toro, 60 years old, was deported to Mexico on May 11 after having lived for more than three decades in Arizona, where he left his family, as reported by El País. After arriving in Tapachula and running out of money, he ended up occasionally sleeping on the street.

The Cuban also has difficulties walking and is moving in the caravan using an improvised walking stick made from a branch. "I'm going to go as far as my feet will allow me, but I can't stay in Tapachula because this is a prison," he told the Spanish newspaper.

Gómez Toro is part of the caravan "Dreams Without Borders," made up of hundreds of migrants who left Tapachula heading to Mexico City due to delays in their immigration processes and a lack of opportunities to survive. Estimates of the group size range from over 600 to about 800 participants.

Among them are Cubans, Haitians, Venezuelans, and citizens from several Central American countries.

Another Cuban, Santos Sanabria, explained days earlier to CNN en Español that he decided to leave due to low wages and the high cost of living.

"There is no work here; you work and for what you do, they give you $200, and those $200 go straight to a plate of food," he noted.

Sanabria intends to stay in Mexico City, where a friend offered him a job as a truck driver.

The caravan's departure comes amid increasing migration pressure at the southern Mexican border. Organizations estimate that around 65,000 migrants remain stranded in the area, many of them waiting to resolve their legal status.

For Cubans, the situation became more complicated in August when the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (Comar) tightened its criteria for evaluating applications, requiring stronger evidence of actual and sustained persecution.

The desperation was also revealed at the beginning of the month when around 40 Cubans staged a riot at the Siglo XXI Migratory Station in Tapachula upon learning they would be deported.