Did you see how they ran right through barriers erected in or around Mexico? You have no problem with thousands of illegal aliens forcing their way across our border?
If not, how do you think it should be handled?
I have a problem with any illegal aliens entering the United States without going through the proper channels to achieve asylum and therefore legal immigration status.
A fence was stormed by Hondurans at the border between Mexico and Guatemala. Although there were some reports that there was likely 4,000 folks in the caravan, it is impossible to know the actual count. About 1,700 have applied for asylum in Mexico and another 500 have asked to be repatriated. If these guesstimates are anywhere near reality, it means the there would be around 8 military personnel plus boarder patrol agents (as of 2010 there were roughly 20,000 agents) to every 1 person in the caravan who makes it to the boarder.
As of October 28th the caravan was in Tapanatepec, Mexico which is 1,000 miles from the U.S. boarder. The caravan is moving at between 20 and 30 miles a day. This means that those who actually make it to our boarder will get here in about 40 days.
For fiscal year 2017, Congress enacted a budget of $3,805,253,000 for the Border Patrol. One can only guess how much the military deployment will cost. And, the military has no authority to actually stop or detain any of the folks entering the U.S.
It's impossible to believe we need somewhere between 8 and 16 officials including armed military personnel to detain each immigrant in this caravan. It seems we could handle this with a lot fewer military personnel, if any are needed at all. Why can't 20,000 or less boarder patrol folks take care of this on their own. Trump's comments appear to be more of a political stunt than anything. We have a month to figure this out unless Trump jumps the gun in hopes of getting mid-term votes in 5 days.
