As the government shutdown nears a month with no solution in sight, a new caravan of more than 1,000 migrants has left Honduras and is heading north, and the Department of Homeland Security has warned the group that merely participating in a caravan does not guarantee entry into the U.S.
About 1,300 Honduran migrants registered to cross into Guatemala, the Associated Press reported.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted statistics this week to back the Trump administration’s position that a “humanitarian crisis” exists on the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
.@DHSgov is closely monitoring the new caravan heading north. To be clear – participation in a caravan does not grant you a special status or provide you special treatment.
— Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen (@SecNielsen) January 16, 2019
President Trump and Congress remain at loggerheads over $5 billion in border funding, while 800,000 federal workers are not receiving paychecks. Trump says that he will not reopen the government unless he receives the appropriation to build the wall. Trump has said that it is his right as president to declare a national emergency over the issue, but has not yet done so.
ICYMI: Trump, Dems Rehash Border Dispute in Primetime Shutdown Showdown
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1085519375224983552
MORE: Here’s What President Trump Wants to End the Government Shutdown
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1085154110108848128
In November, DHS and the Justice Department adopted an asylum rule to turn back a caravan of thousands of migrants heading to the U.S. border. The rule stipulates that anyone falsely claiming asylum will not be allowed into the country. Then last month, Nielsen announced before the House Committee on Homeland Security that she was introducing a historic measure that would make migrants seeking asylum await their trial date in Mexico.
SEE: Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department Adopt Asylum Rule to Turn Back Caravan
MORE: Nielsen: New ‘Catch and Return’ Rule in Effect to Make Asylum-Seekers Wait in Mexico
Trump, in response to the incoming migrants, ordered thousands of active-duty members of the U.S. military to back up U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel at the border. Their mission was extended to Sept. 30, the Pentagon announced on Monday.
“In response to the December 27, 2018 request from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan approved Department of Defense assistance to DHS through Sept. 30, 2019,” notes the DoD statement. “DOD is transitioning its support at the southwestern border from hardening ports of entry to mobile surveillance and detection, as well as concertina wire emplacement between ports of entry. DOD will continue to provide aviation support.”
Of the 31,754 UACs from the Northern Triangle (out of 41,000 UACs total) apprehended in FY 2017, 98 percent remain in the country today. Last year, 60,000 UACs entered our country. #HumanitarianCrisis
— Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen (@SecNielsen) January 16, 2019
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats maintain that the designation as a “humanitarian crisis” is inaccurate and that the crisis has been manufactured by an administration trying to appeal to its base.
.@realDonaldTrump, stop holding the paychecks of 800,000 Americans hostage. There is no reason for them to be suffering right now. Re-open the government! #TrumpShutdown https://t.co/3yQ3B9fOOn
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 15, 2019
More Border News:
- Donors to GoFundMe’s $20 Million Border Wall Campaign Will Receive Refunds
- Accomplice in Border Patrol Agent’s Death Pleads Guilty
- Trump Heads to Border, Defends ‘Absolute Right to Declare a National Emergency’
- Former NCTC Director: Myth and Reality on Terrorists and the Southern Border
- PERSPECTIVE: The Greatest Threat to Future Border Security? The Mass Migration of Climate Refugees and Ecological Migrants
