Trump: We will ‘build tent cities’ for migrant caravan

President Trump during an interview on Monday said that the administration is planning to “build tent cities” for the thousands of migrants seeking asylum who are heading toward the southern border. 

Trump in recent days has been stoking fears that violent gang members may be part of the so-called migrant caravan, which includes thousands of Central Americans fleeing violence and dire economic conditions in their home countries. The migrants are still weeks away from reaching the border.

The president during a prerecorded interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham said the administration will “hold” the migrants who apply for asylum rather than releasing them pending their court dates, as previous administrations have done.

.@POTUS on facilities for asylum seekers: “We’re going to build tent cities. We’re going to put tents up all over the place.” @IngrahamAngle pic.twitter.com/fL3ALkNbz4

— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 29, 2018

{mosads}”If they applied for asylum, we’re going to hold them until such time as their trial takes place,” Trump told Ingraham. 

“Where? We have the facilities?” she asked.

“We’re going to put up — we’re going to build tent cities,” Trump replied. “We’re going to put tents up all over the place. We’re not going to build structures and spend all of this, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars — we’re going to have tents.”

“They’re going to be very nice,” he added.

Trump has called the caravan of Central American migrants an “invasion.” He has also referred to the midterms as the election of the “caravan.”

Democrats and immigration-rights activists have accused the president of drawing on xenophobic and racist images in an effort to frighten the electorate ahead of Election Day. The migrants are still more than 1,000 miles away. 

Ingraham during the interview asked Trump to respond to former President Obama, who denounced the president’s rhetoric about the caravan during a recent campaign event. 

“Now the latest, they’re trying to convince everybody to be afraid of a bunch of impoverished, malnourished refugees a thousand miles away — that’s the thing, it’s the most important in this election?” Obama said during an event in Wisconsin this week. “We’re scaremongering people on the border.” 

Trump responded by saying that there are people from “gangs” in the caravan. His claim has not been proven.