Vice President Pence in an interview that aired Monday on “Rising” said the caravan of Central American migrants moving toward the U.S. southern border is symptomatic of the country’s larger problem with immigration.
“Let’s recognize that we have a crisis with illegal immigration,” Pence told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton on Friday.
“On any given day, we have more than a thousand people attempt to get into this country illegally, and the truth of the matter is, Democrats on Capitol Hill have opposed building a wall, opposed closing the loopholes that human traffickers use to entice vulnerable families to make a long and dangerous journey north,” he continued.
“What President Trump has been committed to from candidate two years ago to his presidency over the past two years is to build that wall, which we’ve begun, but ultimately to fix this broken immigration system,” he said.
“The latest caravan is just the latest reminder to the American people of how much we need to address this crisis, and we really believe with renewed Republican leadership in the House and in the Senate, and with Republican leadership in statehouses around the country, we’ll be able to bring together the support necessary to end this crisis of illegal immigration once and for all,” he said.
Trump has pushed the issue of immigration into the spotlight ahead of the midterms as a means of rallying his Republican base to the polls, pointing specifically to the caravan, which he says is an invasion.
The administration has been accused of resorting to fear-mongering when it comes to the caravan, as a potential tactic for turning out supporters during the upcoming midterm. Pence himself has made multiple unfounded allegations about the caravan, including that it is “inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent” among the migrants, and that the caravan was funded by Venezuela. Media fact-checkers have said these allegations have little credibility.
The president also said last week that he may send as many as 15,000 troops to the border.
The caravan split into several groups and the majority is currently traveling through a notoriously dangerous route.
Mexican authorities have said that roughly 3,000 immigrants from the first caravan have applied for refuge in Mexico, while hundreds more have turned back.
A total of 6,000 migrants are traveling through the country, bound for the U.S. border.
— Julia Manchester
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