President Trump on Tuesday demanded that Mexico’s government stop a “caravan” of about 1,100 migrants headed for the U.S.-Mexican border.
In an early morning tweet, the president said the caravan “had better be stopped.”
“The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our ‘Weak Laws’ Border, had better be stopped before it gets there. Cash cow NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement] is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!” Trump tweeted.
On Monday, Trump declared that Mexico’s government had “absolute power” to stop the migrants.
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“Mexico has the absolute power not to let these large ‘Caravans’ of people enter their country. They must stop them at their Northern Border, which they can do because their border laws work, not allow them to pass through into our country, which has no effective border laws,” the president tweeted.
The Associated Press reported that the caravan stopped to rest at a sports field in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca Monday night. Many of the migrants are reportedly fleeing persecution in Honduras and some plan to seek asylum in the U.S. upon reaching the border.
Trump’s tweets come amid his warning that any chance to save the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is “dead.” Trump last year rescinded DACA, which protects certain young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and Congress has been unable to come up with a legislative fix for the Obama-era program. DACA remains in place, however, pending an appeals court’s review of a lower court’s decision.