Caravan of Central Americans will continue trek through Mexico to US border - Thomas Lifson

by Thomas Lifson

The march on the US border by Central Americans could become a nightmare for the Democrats’ hopes for capturing control of the House of Representatives.

The march on the US border by Central Americans could become a nightmare for the Democrats’ hopes for capturing control of the House of Representatives. Following threats of retaliation by President Trump, Mexico has not stopped or dispersed the group, but apparently has thinned it down. Adolfo Flores, the Buzzfeed reporter embedded with the group, reports in 2 tweets the latest plans:

At caravan general meeting Irineo Mujica said the caravan will continue and will not be stopped. The group plans on going to Puebla and then Mexico City. After that they will go on with asylum seekers.

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

Everyone else was encouraged to take a humanitarian visa in Mexico, a document allowing them to travel in Mexico for 10 to 20 days, or document giving them permission to stay in the country for 30 days to file an immigration claim. They will not go beyond Mexico City.

— Adolfo Flores (@aflores) April 3, 2018

In other words, Mexico will host (for now) those who are not prepared to claim asylum in the US. Lack of economic opportunity or high crime rates do not qualify one for US asylum, only justifiable fears of political or ethnic or religious persecution. That presumably smaller group will proceed to an unspecified place on the border.

But those seeking succor in the US are not exactly supplicants, they began by issuing demands, including “open the borders to us to us because we are as much citizens as the people of the countries where we are and/or travel."

Investors Business Daily sees trouble ahead for the Democrats:

Perhaps the People Without Borders leadership believe they're going to bring the entire immigration crisis to a head with this stunt. Well, they may be right, but not in the way that they think.
President Trump is pushing Congress hard for tougher immigration laws, even asking Republicans in the Senate to employ the "nuclear option" — a filibuster-free vote — to get the job done.
By the way, Mexico, which frequently criticizes the U.S. for its "harsh" immigration policies, is far harder on Latin American immigrants than the U.S. would ever dream of being. Illegal immigrants who enter Mexico are immediately apprehended, jailed and summarily sent home. Their southern border is secure. [Except that they allowed this caravan through – TL] (snip)
Because Trump isn't about to let the Central American throng cross the border, and he'll have support from average Americans. It's possible he'll even deploy troops. [Update: National Guard.] Will the "refugees" instigate a violent confrontation? We wouldn't put it past the leftist leaders of this political caravan. The left has a rich history of sacrificing the very people it pretends to help on the altar of socialist ideals. What better way to win the immigration debate than to have a few martyrs?

John Daniel Davidson of The Federalist sees even more potential trouble

Make no mistake: if the caravan reaches the U.S. border, it will be a disaster on several levels. At the most basic level, it will be a humanitarian crisis. Depending on where groups of migrants decide to cross, food, water, and exposure will be an immediate problem. Vast stretches of the U.S.-Mexico border are sparsely populated and geographically harsh. Facilities to house and feed hundreds of families for more than a day or two simply do not exist along the border. Most of those who manage to cross into the United States would have to be released before long.
While Border Patrol is dealing with all that, drug cartels would no doubt take advantage of the situation. While I was on a reporting trip to the Rio Grande Valley last month, Border Patrol agents told me that when unaccompanied minors began showing up in large numbers in 2014, it swamped their resources and left vast stretches of the border un-monitored. Drug cartels sent over large groups of minors on purpose, they said, as a diversionary tactic. A group of 80 or 90 children and families surrendering to Border Patrol would tie up every agent in that area for the entire day, allowing smugglers to ferry drugs across an unguarded border with impunity.
All of this would in turn trigger a political crisis that very well might accrue to Trump’s advantage.

The Democrats, with their commitment to identity politics, would have a hard time turning away from their backing of any and all border crossers. The crush of new cases seeking asylum would, under current law, necessitate admitting asylum-seekers and their residence here while the lengthy process of adjudication takes place. AG Sessions just rolled out quotas for immigration judges to handle such cases at the rate of 700 per year or more, to predictable outrage from the left, but President Trump wants reform of immigration law to end the “catch and release” policy for border violators, including non-adults.

All of this could well become an election issue in the next five months, and I don’t think that it helps Democrats turn many GOP seats blue. President Trump, like Rahm Emanuel, is not one to let a crisis go to waste. 

Thomas Lifson

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/04/caravan_of_central_americans_will_continue_trek_through_mexico_to_us_border.html

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