When the Trump administration announced its plan to send 5,200 active-duty troops to serve in support roles and assist in securing the Southern border, the media responded with the expected hysteria and hyperbole.
The Chicago Tribune characterized it as an “extraordinary military operation” designed to “turn the caravans into a key election issue just days before elections that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress.”
SFGate.com, the online portal for the San Francisco Chronicle, mimicked the Tribune in a “news” article, asserting that the “deployments come as the president has been trying to turn the caravan into a key election issue with just days to go before the midterm vote that will determine whether Republicans maintain control of Congress.”
The decision to boost border security forces may very well be a politically advantageous move. However, they are willfully blind to immediate need to gain control of the border – election or no election.
Yes, no-border and open border advocacy groups like Pueblo Sin Fronteras have funded caravans in the past, but the caravans now heading our way are exponentially larger.
April’s group was larger than in the past and that was just some 1,000 migrants – far fewer than the current 7,000-member caravan on its way to U.S.
A second caravan, which Department of Defense officials said Monday was comprised of 3,000 migrants, gathered last week in Guatemala and a third is organizing in El Salvador.
“This means that at any given moment, there are tens of thousands of intending migrants between the Guatemala border and the U.S. border moving towards us at any given time,” stated Kevin McAleenan, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner, in a press conference announcing the deployment.
McAleenan added the caravans have unlawfully crossed international borders and “deployed violent and dangerous tactics” against both Guatemalan and Mexican border security teams.
With their focus on politics and elections, the media cannot see the potential peril in standing-by as thousands of migrants demand from the Mexican government safe passage. They are blind to the fact that Mexico has offered protection and work authorizations, but the migrants to date have rejected them.
And they have closed their eyes to the reality that the CBP already is understaffed and overburdened by having to defend against the migrants who try to cross illegally every day.