Donald Trump weighs in on US migrant issue; "caravan reaching Mexico must be stopped"

Former US President Donald Trump on Thursday slammed the Biden administration for not taking concrete steps on the border migration issue. Trump statement came after a Caravan of more than 2,000 immigrants and asylum seekers, who started marching towards the southern border of the United States on 23 October reached the border state of Chiapas on Wednesday afternoon. According to a report by Fox News, the Republican leader said that migrants making their way from the south of Mexico to the US border "must be stopped".

He said that the size of the caravan has now reached above 4,000. "I hope everyone is watching the MASSIVE Caravan pouring through Mexico and headed to our Country. This must be stopped before they reach our Border, or before, Trump said in a statement released on his website on October 27. "Just nine months ago, we had the strongest Border in our Nation’s history. This should have never happened!" Though the official size of the crowd is difficult to comprehend, the media report claimed it might be possible over 4,000 people have been marching towards the US border.

Blame game started over migrant influx

On October 27, migrants arrived at the town of Villa Comaltitlan with many of them were holding US flags or banners featuring President Joe Biden's name. "The caravan is like a magnet, it goes sucking up people, migrants who had been in the towns (of coastal Chiapas) are joining," said Irineo Mújica, an immigration activist with the organization People without Borders to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has blamed the Trump era for shutting down legal pathways to asylum. The administration also accused Central America of the massive caravan moving towards the US Border. According to Fox News, more than 1.7 million migrant encounters at the border in FY 2021 and more than 192,000 encounters in September alone. 

This march is different from earlier one

On the other hand, Trump accused the Biden administration of rolling back their policies, resulting in the influx of migrants at the border areas. Notably, the march that began on Saturday in Tapachula is quite different from the earlier marches as it does not feature as many Haitian migrants, who flocked to the US in large numbers in September near Del Rio, Texas. Over hundreds of Haitians, Cubans, and Central Americans started walking down a roadway from Tapachula in August but were stopped by National Guard forces in riot gear, AP reported. Mexico demands that those migrants who are seeking humanitarian visas or asylum must wait for their claims to be processed in the border state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala.

With inputs from AP

Image: AP