President Trump said Wednesday afternoon that the caravan of migrants heading to the southern U.S.-Mexico border is “full of criminals” and blamed “judicial activism” for putting our nation in danger.
“There are a lot of CRIMINALS in the Caravan. We will stop them. Catch and Detain! Judicial Activism, by people who know nothing about security and the safety of our citizens, is putting our country in great danger. Not good!” the president tweeted.
There are a lot of CRIMINALS in the Caravan. We will stop them. Catch and Detain! Judicial Activism, by people who know nothing about security and the safety of our citizens, is putting our country in great danger. Not good!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018
The caravan has drawn the president’s ire since an initial group of 160 Hondurans began making their way to the U.S. border in mid-October. Over the past month, the group has grown substantially, adding thousands of migrants. The exact number is unknown, but Tijuana, Mexico officials currently fear as many as 10,000 migrants could pass through their city in the coming weeks.
The president has previously argued that the caravan is full of criminals. While there is no direct evidence to back up the president’s claim that the group is riddled with criminals, one member of the caravan stated publicly that there are “criminals everywhere.” The migrant later amended his statement to say there are “not that many.”
Trump has threatened to pull all aid and funding from Honduras if its government does not stop the caravan and has pressured the Mexican government to stop the migrants from crossing its border before they can make their way to the U.S.
White House chief of staff John Kelly reportedly signed a “Cabinet order” Tuesday that gives U.S. troops deployed at the border permission to carry out some law enforcement tasks and, in certain situations, use force.
The memo Kelly signed gives Department of Defense military personnel the ability to “perform those military protective activities that the Secretary of Defense determines are reasonably necessary” to protect themselves and all U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, including “a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary), crowd control, temporary detention, and cursory search.”
