Trump Threatens to Use Military to Shut Down Border as Caravan Approaches

President Trump on Thursday warned that he is willing to use U.S. military troops to enforce security at the Mexican border, as news of a Honduran caravan of illegal immigrants approaching the country angered hardliners in the West Wing.

“I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S.,” Trump tweeted. “In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught – and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!”

The caravan, which launched from Honduras last weekend, is comprised by at least 4,000 immigrants. As of Thursday, it was moving through Guatemala on its way into Mexico, where many of the migrants intend to ask for refugee status. Some may stay there, but many are certain to apply for a visa into the United States, where they do not have and will not be given permission to enter. Unfortunately, that means they will be taken and placed in detention facilities that are already full-to-bursting thanks to an unprecedented spike in incoming migrant families.

According to the State Department, Secretary Mike Pompeo is headed to Mexico City on Friday to discuss the immigration crisis with the new Mexican president. In both that meeting and one a day earlier with the president of Panama, Pompeo intends to “discuss our ongoing security cooperation efforts to disrupt the illicit movements of cash, weapons, drugs across our shared border as well as the issue of stemming illegal immigration and strengthening accountability for corruption and human rights abuses,” said a senior State Department official.

Unfortunately this surge will only get worse as long as the message the U.S. sends is: The Border Is Open for Business. President Trump’s zero-tolerance/family separation policies may have been unpopular with the U.S. media, but they were damn sure effective. There’s a reason family crossings have jumped 80% since he issued an executive order ending the policy.

For this, the news media, the Democrats, and even some Republicans are to blame. Instead of recognizing that we have to do something to deter incoming migrants, they cast Trump as a heartless, callous villain who was setting up “concentration camps” in the desert. When it becomes a crisis of human rights to ENFORCE THE LAW, we’re in real trouble as a nation.