The mainstream media pounced on a comment by President Trump claiming the large caravan of migrants heading toward the United States contained “unknown Middle Easterners.”
That is until a reporter on the ground lent some credibility to the claim.
The New York Times reported that the President’s comments were designed “to stoke fear.” Both Newsweek and the Times went with their usual “without evidence” shtick. The New York Post referred to it as ‘blindly claiming’ the regional makeup of the growing mob contained Middle Easterners “without offering any evidence.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter cited a reporter on the ground who hadn’t seen any “Middle Easterner(s)” as a valuable fact-check against the President’s perceived lies.
Fact-checks from reporters on the ground are sometimes the most valuable fact-checks https://t.co/PCmQJl0NMw
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 22, 2018
Then a new report confirmed that not all the migrants are from Central and South America.
Reporter Saw Migrants From Bangladesh
Univision journalist Francisco Santa Anna was reporting from the bridge separating Guatemala and Mexico, revealing that people from countries other than Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico had jumped into the 7,000+ caravan.
“Yesterday when we were traveling through Guatemala, we noticed people from El Salvador and even people from Bangladesh,” he said. “Can you imagine what they had to do to get here?”
“They infiltrated themselves in this caravan and tried to cross with the crowd,” he admitted. “That would have benefited them greatly.”
Bangladesh may not be technically located in the Middle East, but the provenance of some of these migrants is a cause for concern. Why? Terrorism.
Bangladeshis joined migrant caravan in Guatemala, Univision correspondent reports …
If people all the way from Bangladesh are infiltrating the caravan, imagine who else could be too … ISIS? Gang Members ? https://t.co/eSFCGaUgQG pic.twitter.com/nOXVcEgiO8— Stephanie Hamill (@STEPHMHAMILL) October 22, 2018
Islamic Terrorism On the Rise in Bangladesh
Why would it be a problem for people from Bangladesh to join this mob of people heading for the American border?
An article in the Asia Times this past September indicates that “Madrassas in Bangladesh have reportedly been hotbeds of Islamist militancy in the past and there have been claims this continues despite official crackdowns.”
Georgetown University professor C. Christine Fair labeled Bangladesh as “increasingly the site of Islamist violence.”
Are these migrants fleeing that violence, or are there Islamic State terrorists trying to embed themselves in the caravan as a means to enter the United States?
Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2018
The point here – it’s nearly impossible to know with a group of nearly 10,000 people tearing down gates and rushing borders. That threat and the unknown element here constitute a national emergency.
The Threat Is Real
Todd Bensman, a Senior National Security Fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, reports that Guatemala President Jimmy Morales claimed that his administration had captured “close to 100 people completely linked to terrorist issues, with ISIS,” just days ago as the caravan was making it’s way to Mexico.
Bensman added, “It is well-established now that migrants from origin ‘sending’ countries the United States regards as national security concerns — due to the presence of Islamist terrorist groups in them — have for many years routinely traversed Guatemala on their way to the U.S. southern border.”
President Trump would be wise to follow through with his warning to “close the southern border” and stop any potential threat to American lives and livelihoods immediately.