The migrant caravan that began in Honduras and at its peak had roughly 7,000 members, has lost nearly half of them in a week. An estimated 3,000 migrants have left the caravan to either stay in Mexico or return to their home countries.
At least 5,000 troops have been deployed to the border to thwart any attempted invasion, and the move has apparently succeeded in deterring at least some potential lawbreakers. Mexican security forces have already had violent clashes with the caravan (proving that they’re hardly an innocent group of asylum seekers), but eventually abandoned their efforts to contain the caravan.
Watch the two videos:
Those who abandoned the caravan must be aware that the American armed forces will not simply give up and let them through. According to the Washington Examiner:
“Mexico’s Interior and Foreign Ministries reported, as of Thursday, 2,934 people originally traveling to the U.S. have stopped and applied for asylum in Mexico. Of those, 927 have canceled their asylum claim with the Mexican government and returned to Guatemala and Honduras, where the caravans originated. The two Mexican departments said federal police and immigration officers are helping transport those who chose to return home. For the estimated 2,000 people who remain in Mexico as they wait over the next 45 to 90 days to learn if their asylum requests have been granted, 1,553 have been put up in shelters in the southern state of Chiapas.”
More caravans on the way to the border
Mexico still estimates that 4,000 remain in the caravan, but a second and third caravan have sprung up before the first has been thwarted.
In what’s perhaps an admission of defeat (that they won’t be able to physically cross the U.S.-Mexico border), some caravan members are under the impression that they have the ability to sue President Trump to let them in:
BREAKING: Group of migrants travelling on foot from Honduras file federal lawsuit against Pres Trump and others. “Trump’s professed and enacted policy towards thousands of caravanners seeking asylum in the United States is shockingly unconstitutional.” https://t.co/m79NT1Xci7
— Shannon Bream (@ShannonBream) November 2, 2018
Where are the migrants supposedly fleeing poverty and violence getting the money and legal know-how to bring a lawsuit against the President? Such a lawsuit would certainly cost a multiple of their combined annual incomes, leaving open only the possibility that they’re receiving external help. In an interview with “Washington Post Live,” VP Mike Pence said that the President of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernandez told him that the caravan was organized by left-wing groups in Honduras, and funded by Venezuela.
It’s unclear what’s next for the 4,000 migrants who remain, or the other smaller caravans that have sprung up. They will not be allowed to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and Trump has already stated that they will not be granted asylum, so attempting to claim it would be pointless. Granting asylum to these caravans would set a precedent that opens up America to an endless supply of illegal immigrants posing as asylum seekers.
