President Donald Trump tweeted early Thursday morning that he will send troops and close the border if Mexico lets the latest caravan of thousands of migrants marching north reach the boundary between the two nations.
“The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!” Trump said in the first of a series of impassioned tweets on the growing crisis.
….The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA. Hopefully Mexico will stop this onslaught at their Northern Border. All Democrats fault for weak laws!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018
In the second tweet in the series, Trump said that “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!…”
….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!..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018
In his third tweet of the morning, the president called the caravan part of “an assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador” — and he accused Democrats of leading the effort through their support of open borders and a weak enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
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…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 18, 2018
The latest caravan is now estimated to include approximately 4,000 men, women and children from Honduras and Guatemala.
As with a similar march in April, organizers of the march say the marchers will claim refugee status when they reach the U.S. border with Mexico.
Related: Why Trump’s Threat to Cut Foreign Aid Might Not Stop Caravan
Organizers reportedly have paid cash to an unknown number of the marchers. And many of the marchers journalists have interviewed appear to have been coached by somebody to say they are heading to the U.S. because of the poverty and rampant crime in their home countries.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted video Wednesday of what he described as cash being given to women and children to join the march. “Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source,” the congressman said.
BREAKING: Footage in Honduras giving cash 2 women & children 2 join the caravan & storm the US border @ election time. Soros? US-backed NGOs? Time to investigate the source! pic.twitter.com/5pEByiGkkN
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) October 17, 2018
Also Thursday, LifeZette reported that the president’s threat Wednesday to stop U.S. aid to the Central American nations if they don’t do more to prevent their people from seeking to enter America isn’t likely to be a sufficient deterrent.
The reason: U.S. aid is insignificant compared to the billions of dollars such immigrants routinely send back to their families at home. LifeZette’s Brendan Kirby reported:
“A database maintained by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which tracks all military and civilian assistance by the federal government, shows American taxpayers spent the following sums in these Central American countries in fiscal year 2017:
1.) Guatemala — $229.3 million
2.) Honduras — $144 million
3.) El Salvador — $91.2 million”
Kirby’s report continued: “That is chump change compared with the cash infusion those economies receive from money wired by people in the United States. A 2017 report by the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank that promotes better cooperation in the Western Hemisphere, estimates that 17 Latin American and Caribbean nations received $75 billion in such remittances in 2017. That was an 8 percent increase over 2016.”
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