October 21, 2018

Trump Warns of “Onslaught of Illegal Aliens” in Migrant Caravan

At least 5,000 Latin American migrants crossed the southern Mexico border on Sunday.

Carolyn Kaster/AP

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

A caravan of Central American migrants swelled to more than 5,000 people as it reached Mexico’s southern border on Sunday, marching past Mexican police and immigration officials and towards the United States. In response, President Donald Trump tweeted a familiar call to “stop the onslaught of illegal aliens from crossing” the US-Mexico border, adding that the courts “are asking the US to do things that are not doable!” 

At campaign rallies this week ahead of the November midterm elections, President Donald Trump capitalized on the caravan’s journey, which began in Honduras in mid-October, stoking concerns over immigration and calling for a stop to the march. At a Thursday rally in Montana, Trump threatened to “send the military to defend our southern border if necessary” and blamed Democrats for the “illegal immigration onslaught.” He has also threatened to pull foreign aid to Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador and to close the US border if Mexican officials don’t stop the caravan. 

At a rally in Arizona on Friday, Trump repeated a bogus claim that Democrats were behind the migration and that some “bad people” were part of the thousands of migrants heading to the border. He told supporters: “This country doesn’t want them.”

They want to control the story. Our readers don’t let them.

Powerful forces are working to control the narrative, rewrite history, and keep you in the dark. That’s why the Mother Jones newsroom is fiercely independent, not backed by billionaires or bending to political whims.

But we can’t do this work without you.

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by our readers. Each donation helps strengthen our work, so we can continue to investigate and publish, no matter what an authoritarian-minded administration wants the media to say.

Stand with us. Make a gift today.

They want to control the story. Our readers don’t let them.

Powerful forces are working to control the narrative, rewrite history, and keep you in the dark. That’s why the Mother Jones newsroom is fiercely independent, not backed by billionaires or bending to political whims.

But we can’t do this work without you.

Our nonprofit newsroom is funded by our readers. Each donation helps strengthen our work, so we can continue to investigate and publish, no matter what an authoritarian-minded administration wants the media to say.

Stand with us. Make a gift today.

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate