Migrant Caravan Makes Way through Guatemala Despite Trump Threats By Mairead McArdle
Migrant Caravan Makes Way through Guatemala Despite Trump Threats
A caravan of close to 2,000 Honduran immigrants is continuing to make its way through Guatemala to the United States, a day after President Trump warned Central American countries that they may lose American aid if they let illegal immigrants cross the U.S. border.
“We have today informed the countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that if they allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States, with the intention of entering our country illegally, all payments made to them will STOP (END)!”
The president also hit Democrats Wednesday morning, calling their inaction on immigration reform a “great midterm issue” for the GOP.
The migrant caravan started with a mere 160 or so travelers, but picked up people along the way and has grown to as many as 3000. The caravan’s members, which include small children and adults who have left family behind, say they are fleeing violence in Honduras, one of the most crime-ridden countries in the world. They sleep on the ground and eat whatever food townspeople can buy them.
The new caravan is larger than one that made headlines in April as asylum seekers traveled north, hoping to either settle in Mexico or make it across the U.S. border. About 1,200 people traveled in that caravan, an annual and largely ceremonial Holy Week event that attracted a particularly large group this year. In the end, only about 150 actually attempted to cross the U.S. border.
The Honduran government has condemned the caravan, saying citizens were duped with “false promises” of transit aid and the chance to settle in the U.S.
“There are sectors that want to destabilize the country, but we will be decisive and we will not allow it,” Honduran president Juan Hernandez said, accusing “political groups” of being behind the caravan.
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