Friday, December 13, 2024

Growing caravan proceeds on its journey to the US border

 

The Central American migrants moving their way through Mexico as part of a controversial caravan — one President Donald Trump is pushing hard as a midterms’ election issue — is forging ahead in its long journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.

The first waves of migrants, who U.N. officials estimate may be as high as 7,200 and growing, began arriving late Monday to the small southern Mexican town of Huixtla after an exhausting eight-hour trek.

The caravan began October 13 when a group of mostly Honduran migrants embarked on the trip north, fleeing government corruption, extreme poverty and rampant violence. The caravan has already walked through Guatemala and is passing through southern Mexico with migrants from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.

The Caravan was organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a human rights group that provides aid and legal assistance to migrants. It’s the second organized caravan this year, but this one is considerably larger and has garnered more media attention.

Trump has railed about the latest caravan since last week, taking to Twitter to rip the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for failing to deal with the migration crisis, and threatening to reduce U.S. aid even more to these countries. Trump told USA TODAY in an exclusive interview that he would send as many troops as necessary to the U.S.-Mexican border to block the caravan, calling their trek “an assault on our country.”

He later slammed Democrats over immigration during a raucous rally in Houston, telling a packed arena that the migrant caravan would be a defining issue in the November midterms. “The crisis on our border right now as we speak is the sole result of Democrat laws and activist, Democrat judges.” Trump told thousands gathered in the Houston Toyota Center.

USA TODAY