Illegal immigrants blocked at border pray for Trump’s defeat, ‘I want Trump out’
by Paul Bedard
| January 17, 2020 01:27 PM
Latin American migrants eager to enter the United States but held in Mexico are praying for President Trump’s election defeat in 2020, believing that a Democratic president will open the borders again.
“I want Trump out,” said Honduran Katherine Cabrera, who is being held in Tapachula, Mexico, with her baby.
“Once Trump is defeated, and the Democrats take over, things are going to get better,” added El Salvadoran Brenda Ramos.
The comments from Ramos and Cabrera and others were included in a Center for Immigration Studies border report on the attitudes held by migrants under the U.S.-Mexico initiative to stop unchecked illegal immigration.
The report found that instead of staying home, thousands of immigrants are “gambling” that it is worth staying in Mexican migrant camps in hopes Trump and his policies will go away.
Todd Bensman, the center’s senior national security fellow, wrote, “Dozens of politically woke migrants, like Honduran Wilson Valladaras, recently told CIS their decisions to stay in Mexico were predicated on the Trump-defeat gamble. Valladaras said he would wait for his Mexican asylum approval, move to Tijuana ‘until Trump leaves,’ and then cross over the U.S. border when the Democrats undo his policies because ‘right now, the Americans will throw you back’ to Mexico.”
One of the reasons illegal crossings and apprehensions are down is because of the administration’s “remain in Mexico” program, part of the “Migrant Protection Protocols” that requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for a green light from the U.S.
Bensman talked to the official heading the program and said that some immigrants her department is processing will still try to enter the U.S. even if Trump stays.
“None want to stay in Mexico; this is just their first chance to get into the United States, of course,” said Alma Delia Cruz, the head Comision Mexicana de Ayuda a Refugiados. She added to Bensman, “I don't know what's on the minds of these people exactly, but the threats from Trump can't deter them from eventually getting into the U.S.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/w...want-trump-out
