US President Donald Trump has said he will cut foreign aid to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, as a caravan of migrants makes its way toward the US-Mexico border. He branded the situation a "national emergency."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Castillo
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Trump tweeted on Monday that the US would start to substantially reduce or completely cut aid to three Central American states for being "not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country."
In a flurry of tweets, he repeated complaints blaming Democrats for lax immigration laws. Trump — who alleged there were "unknown Middle Easterners among the convoy — also said he had alerted the military and the US Border Patrol of an impending national emergency.
The three countries together received $500 million from the US during the 2017 fiscal year, although the sums had already been predicted to fall.
'Remember the Midterms!'
A Honduran-born leader of the migrant caravan rejected Trump's assertion that there were people from the Middle East in the group. He said all those there were from Central America.
After taking office, Trump imposed a travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority nations, saying it was necessary to stop terrorists from entering the country.
The president devoted one tweet to an explicit attempt to connect the caravan and the midterm election campaign, urging people to "think of and blame the Democrats" if they see a caravan or an attempt at illegal immigration.
Trump had also highlighted the caravan issue while on the mid-term campaign trail last week. As many as 5,000 migrants were reported to have massed in the Mexican city of Tapachula by Sunday evening, some 3,800 kilometers (2,400 miles) from the US border. A smaller group was reported to be not far behind.
Central American immigrants turn to Mexico
Most migrants to the United States from the so-called "Northern Triangle" of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are staying in Mexico for now — because of Donald Trump's new immigration policies.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
No longer first choice
In a migrant shelter in the southern Mexican city of Tenosique, near the Guatemalan border, a refugee from Honduras says he originally planned to move to the United States with his family. Trump's election has changed everything. "I wanted to go to the United States with my family, but we've seen that the new government there has made things harder."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Lingering in Mexico
Concepcion Bautista from Guatemala cradles her newborn son in the same migrant shelter. She says she plans to head for the United States, but will linger in Mexico to see how US President Donald Trump's immigration policies play out. Her goal is to reunite with her family up north...
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
A mere transit country?
…but for the time being, she believes applying for asylum in Mexico is a smarter move. Mexican asylum data and testimony from migrants in Tenosique suggest that although fewer Central Americans are trying to enter the US, plenty are still fleeing their poor, violent home countries, with many deciding to stay longer in Mexico, which has traditionally been a transit country.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Tough immigration policies
The Trump administration has pointed out a sharp decline in immigrant detentions in the first few months of this year as a vindication for the president's tough immigration policies. The measures are already having another effect. In California, where farmers usually rely on workers from Mexico to bring in the harvest, many Mexicans are staying away, preferring to find work in their own country.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Asylum applications on the rise
Migrants from Central America play football in the migrant shelter in Tenosique. The number of people applying for asylum in Mexico has soared by more than 150 percent since Trump was elected president. These days, Mexican immigrants would rather set up in Canada than the United States.
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
Human smugglers up the price
One man from Guatemala says the prices charged by people smugglers have risen sharply since Trump took office, now hovering around $10,000 (9,100 euros), up from about $6,000 a few years ago. Migrants sit below a mural in Mexico with the words: "Our demand is minimal: justice."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
A new home
With Mexico's immigration authorities controlling migration more assiduously, Central Americans were forced to take more isolated, dangerous routes where the chances of being mugged were higher. "We've gone north several times, but every time it's got harder," says one man, who was deported from the United States in December. "Now, it's better if we travel alone, along new routes."
Image: Reuters/C. Jasso
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Members of the caravan have vowed to press on, despite Trump's threat to close the border to them.
Migrants are fleeing widespread gang violence and poverty in the Central American states they hail from.
Mexican authorities have called on them to formally register their presence in the country so that they can be processed for asylum. Those who do not qualify would be liable to being sent back to their home countries.
