A caravan of more than 7,000 people, making its way through Central America is being attacked by U.S. President Donald Trump as he seeks to rally people to vote for Republican candidates in the November 6 midterm elections to the U.S. Congress.
The caravan, which began with over a 100 people in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula grew in strength to include Salvadorans and Guatemalans, as news of it spread on social media. Mr Trump took to social media and campaign rallies, targeting the caravan.
“Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws!” Mr. Trump tweeted on Monday.
He, however, provided no evidence for his claims and neither have the U.S. intelligence agencies come forth with supporting evidence. The evidence points to the contrary — that most of those making their way to the U.S., men, women and children from Honduras , Guatemala and El Salvador, are fleeing gang violence, abject poverty and unemployment. The President told reporters who asked for evidence to take their cameras into the caravan, saying they would find MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha, a violent gang) members and West Asians.
Mr. Trump had used race and migration successfully to appeal to his voter base during the 2016 presidential elections and is doing the same thing again, two weeks before the midterms. The number of Republican and Republican leaning individuals who say the U.S. has no responsibility to accept refugees is three times the number of Democrat and Democrat leaning individuals who feel the same, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in April and May.
Mr Trump squarely blamed democrats for the migrant caravan, accusing them of opening up the U.S. border to “deadly drugs and gangs” through their policies and also funding the migrants to enter the U.S.’s southern border. “…think of and blame the Democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic Immigration Laws! Remember the Midterms!” Mr. Trump said on Twitter.
‘Who believes this?’
Jeff Flake, the Republican Senator from Arizona, called Mr. Trump’s portrayal of the caravan a “canard”. “…what’s more troubling to me now is, who believes this?” Mr. Flake told CNN.
Mr. Trump warned that he would cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador if they did not stop people from leaving their countries; each of these received between $100 and $250 million in U.S. government aid in 2017. On Sunday, the group had made its way across Guatemala to the southern Mexican border, where Mexican riot police followed them, but vastly outnumbered, did not turn them away.
The Trump administration has faced widespread criticism for separating over 2,000 children from their parents at the border with Mexico earlier this year. Since then, the policy has shifted to detaining families together.
The challenges and uncertainty facing the caravan’s migrants do not end with their entry into the U.S. “As President Trump has stated, consistent with law, the U.S. will not allow illegal immigrants to enter or remain in the country,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
