Trump threatens to call US military to close southern border as 4,000-strong migrant
Trump threatens to call US military to close southern border as 4,000-strong migrant caravan pushes north
By Greg Norman
Published 1 hour ago
President Trump warned Thursday he will “call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER” with Mexico if officials there don’t stop the northward flow of a growing migrant caravan that's swelled in size to about 4,000 people.
The president’s latest threat against the caravan that originated in Honduras – and which is heading to the U.S. in a bid to escape Honduras’ poverty and violence – comes as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is heading to Central America to talk with leaders about the issue.
“I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S.,” Trump tweeted Thursday morning.
He added: “In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!”
The caravan, estimated to contain around 4,000 people, is inching Thursday toward the Mexico-Guatemala border, where Mexican officials have sent 500 additional federal police officers ahead of its arrival, NBC News reported, citing U.S. government documents.
Mexico has said anyone with travel documents and the correct visa will be allowed to pass and others can apply for refugee status, but also warned that those who try to cross in an “irregular manner” could be detained and deported, according to the Associated Press.
The news agency added that none of the migrants it spoke to who are making the journey were carrying passports, signaling a looming showdown with Mexican border officials in the coming days.
One of the Honduran migrants, Henry Tejeda, told the Associated Press that he left his wife and four children behind to join the caravan. He said his mother was murdered four years ago and his brother was shot.
"I am carrying the documents to prove I'm not lying," Tejeda said. "I want to seek political asylum [in the United States] and help my family."
Pompeo – fresh off of traveling to Saudi Arabia and Turkey for meetings over the disappearance of activist Jamal Khashoggi – is now heading to Panama City Thursday and Mexico City tomorrow.
He will meet with the presidents of both countries to “discuss our ongoing security cooperation efforts to disrupt the illicit movement of cash, weapons, drugs across our shared border as well as the issue of stemming illegal immigration and strengthening accountability for corruption and human rights abuses, and bringing members of transnational criminal organizations to justice,” a senior State Department official said.
The official also said the migrant caravan will be a “prominent” topic of discussion at those meetings.
“Certainly it’s an issue that we have viewed as a shared challenge and we continue to work closely with countries in the region to address the underlying economic, security, and governance conditions that have driven illegal immigration to the United States,” the official added.”
Since 2015, the U.S. government has sent more than $2.6 billion in foreign assistance to the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut off that aid if the mass migration continues.
The caravan set off last Friday from San Pedro Sula, Honduras’ second-largest city and a place widely considered to be one of most dangerous in the world by homicide rate. At its start, its size was estimated by the Associated Press to be around 160 people.
The growing caravan is now banding together as a means of protection against crimes that may occur during the journey northward.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/trump-thr...n-pushes-north
