Trump Slams Central American Countries For ‘Doing Nothing’ To Curb Migrant Caravans After Pence Praised Them
Towards the end of 2018, a migrant caravan of people seeking asylum in the U.S. started the long and dangerous trek up to the U.S.-Mexico border for central America. President Donald Trump was absolutely incensed by this, calling for every protection to be put in place at the border, and even deployed around 15,000 troops to the border to deal with the perceived threat from mostly women and children.
Despite that caravan never having crossed the border, Trump is still concerned that the threat from migrant caravans has not abated.
Just a day after Vice President Mike Pence praised Honduras for working to curb migrant caravans, Trump has made wild claims that the country has done nothing about trying to prevent them, according to CNN.
“Honduras is doing nothing for us. Guatemala is doing nothing for us. El Salvador is doing nothing for us,” Trump said during a White House roundtable on immigration. Later on in the discussion, he took direct aim at Honduras.
“The caravan, they’re saying, is massive. The caravan that’s coming up. Thank you very much, Honduras. We send Honduras hundreds of millions of dollars and they send us caravans.”
His assessment of the situation will likely only worsen the U.S.’s relations with Honduras, given that he has already threatened to pull foreign aid completely from the country in the past because of the migrant caravans starting in the country. The region has already been suffering from diminished aid since Trump took office.
President Trump said "Honduras is doing nothing" to stop migrant caravans from coming toward the US, less than a day after Vice President Mike Pence praised Honduras for its efforts to stop caravans https://t.co/vlFFfsYQui pic.twitter.com/3LIQBMyMX6
— CNN International (@cnni) January 24, 2019
Trump has in the past said that foreign aid could be used by Central American countries to prevent and stop migrant caravans to the benefit of the U.S.
He then claimed, minus any form of evidence whatsoever, that those same Central American countries “encourage the caravans because they want to get rid of the people from their country.”
Trump’s harsh criticisms of Honduras and their apparently slow reaction to migrant caravans also stands in stark contrast with the comments of his right-hand man. On Tuesday, just a day before the roundtable, Pence “commended President Hernandez for the proactive and vigorous response to the most recent migrant caravans,” according to the White House.
The vice president also encouraged them to continue their efforts and to form alliances with neighboring countries to continue preventing caravans from heading north.
It seems that the president and his second in command have very differing views on the threat, with Trump also blasting Honduras last week for the number of migrant caravans he seems to believe are originating there.
