WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump threatened today to call up the U.S. military to close the Southern border if Mexico does not intercept a 4,000-person caravan heading to the U.S. from Honduras.
The caravan set out last week from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, a city plagued by extreme violence and murder rates among the highest in the world. The U.S. State Department is compelling Mexican officials to stop the caravan before it reaches the U.S. border, where migrants would legally be allowed to request asylum.
Border Patrol agents have lambasted previous attempts to militarize the border as ineffective and impractical, and the Border Patrol itself has been unable to justify its own desire for more agents.
“As a nation, we should respond to humanitarian situations with compassion and common sense,” said Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. “Threatening those fleeing poverty and violence with military action is neither necessary nor practical, and is a myopic reaction to a complex issue.
“Sending our military to the border fails to address the root causes that lead migrants to such desperate circumstances and will not stop families from fleeing life-or-death situations. Trapping people in terrible situations is not a sustainable policy solution.”
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