Tag: Guatemala–Mexico border

President Donald Trump conceded there’s no evidence for his claim that Middle Eastern terrorists are among thousands of migrants traveling from Honduras toward the U.S. border, but blamed Venezuela and unidentified “leftists” for encouraging the so-called caravan. He’s expressed outrage about the group of several thousand migrants, which is slowly making its way north from Mexico’s border with Guatemala, and said in a tweet on Monday that the caravan included “unknown Middle Easterners.” Questioned repeatedly about the claim on Tuesday, Trump conceded that “there’s no proof of anything” but that terrorists “could very well be” among the group. In a conference call with reporters to discuss new numbers on illegal border crossings, two senior administration officials could not provide evidence for the president’s claim that terrorists are embedded with the migrants. Vice President Mike Pence earlier in the day asserted that “it’s inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent in a crowd of more than 7,000 people advancing toward our border.” Pence also said in remarks at a Washington Post event that “in the last fiscal year, we apprehended more than 10 terrorists or suspected terrorists per day at our southern border.” The administration officials said Pence spoke inaccurately. Tyler Houlton, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, later tweeted a message that the caravan includes people “who are gang members or have significant criminal histories.” He said in another tweet “citizens of countries outside Central America, including countries in the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere are currently traveling through Mexico toward the U.S.” He didn’t say whether any of them were in the caravan. “Leftist groups,” Pence said. Border Apprehensions Up Earlier on Tuesday, Customs and Border Patrol announced that apprehensions of people illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border rose 30 percent in the last fiscal year. U.S. officials apprehended 396,579 people between ports of entry on the southwest border between October 2017 and the end of September, CBP reported. The data indicating a rise in illegal migration was released as Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric against immigrants before the midterms. More families are illegally crossing together, the border patrol reported.