President Donald Trump said he’s sending military troops to the Southwest U.S. border, even as reports circulate that a 1,500-person caravan of Central American migrants is making their way to the U.S. to claim asylum.
The caravan, reportedly made up mostly of Hondurans, has made waves over the past couple of days for basically stomping through Mexico unimpeded by Mexican immigration authorities. Social media posts from some in the group say Mexican agents have stepped aside and purposefully allowed them to enter illegally with the intent of journeying through the the United States.
Presiden Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. military forces will be sent to the border to assist if and when the swarm shows up – but didn’t elaborate on how they’d be used.
“We have very bad laws for our border,” Trump told reporters Tuesday. “I’ve been speaking with General Mattis and we’re going to be doing things militarily. Until we can have a wall, until we can have proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with our military That’s a big step. We really haven’t done that before.”
“We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing, and by the way never showing up for court,” he added.
In response to Trump’s threat to end the NAFTA trade agreement with Mexico if they allowed the mob to get to the U.S. border, Mexican authorities said they were working to disband the group and would only allow the disabled and pregnant women to cross.
The group, however, vowed they will continue marching to the border regardless.