With an estimated 5,000 Central American migrants now making their way north through Mexico, President Donald Trump lobbed another series of threats Monday morning against the region’s governments for not being able to stop the growing caravan.

Trump wrote that he would follow through on threats to cut off funding for Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador now that the caravan has cleared Central America and ensconced itself in southern Mexico. The president, without evidence, warned of “Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” mixed into the migrant caravan group, which originated in Honduras but has swelled in size as people from other nations have jumped in along the way.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is requesting that the United Nations help process the group to determine whether they have valid asylum claims or should be returned to their home countries. On Twitter, an angered Trump said that wasn’t enough, blaming the caravan on America’s southern neighbors, Democrats, and the nation’s “pathetic Immigration Laws.”

“Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S,” Trump wrote. “We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.”

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The three countries combined received more than $500 million in funding from the U.S. in fiscal year 2017, according to The Associated Press.

Trump also used the advance of the caravan as a political battle cry, as so many GOP candidates have done in recent days.

“Remember the Midterms!” he Tweeted.

Trump’s threats have done little to dissuade members of the caravan from trying to reach the U.S. border to make their claims for asylum. Members of the group have become so insistent on staying together, in fact, that they’ve been turning down medical aid and offers of bus rides to ensure that they continue on as a group.

Ulises Garcia, a Red Cross official, told the AP that the migrants have suffered a wide range of injuries, including lacerated, infected feet from the miles of walking, to ankle and shoulder injuries suffered during falls on the arduous trek. But even they, Garcia said, refused trips to local hospitals and clinics under the theory that there is safety in numbers.

“They fear they’ll be detained and deported,” if they leave the group, Garcia said. “They want to continue on their way.”

With the caravan now in Mexico, the big question becomes how the Mexican government will handle them.

Peña Nieto sent two 727 Boeing airplanes filled with federal police to the southern border to monitor the growing number of migrants crossing the border. But the outgoing president said those police officers would be unarmed, and said it would be United Nations officials who would take the lead in determining which migrants have valid claims for refugee status and which should return home.

The president’s successor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who assumes office in December, won his election in part by vowing to fight back against Trump and doing what was in the best interest of Mexico, not necessarily the United States. He said last week that Mexico should give work visas to the would-be refugees, which could grant them freedom of movement throughout the country and lead them to the U.S. border.

For now, United Nations’ officials in Mexico said they are bolstering their staff in southern Mexico to help process the rush of migrants. In a series of tweets over the weekend, the Mexican office of foreign relations showed images of a migrant processing site, where they would begin interviewing women, children and the elderly to determine what should be done with them.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Mexican government must confront and turn back the migrant caravan.

“These caravans need to be stopped in Mexico,” Graham told Fox News on Sunday. “It’s an affront to our sovereignty.”

“I will be practical with illegal immigrants who have been in America for decades,” he said in referring to the estimated 10 million to 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States. “I’m not going to tolerate any more coming here through caravans and we need to change our laws to disincentivize this behavior.”

 

 

 

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