The Patriot Post® · The Caravan Continues

By Gary Bauer ·
https://patriotpost.us/opinion/59019-the-caravan-continues-2018-10-23

Late Friday, the illegal immigrant convoy from Central America breached the Mexican border. Reports indicate that the group has now doubled in size to at least 7,000 people.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that individuals previously expelled from the U.S. in Mexico are now joining the caravan, hoping to get back into the United States.

It is important to understand that there is much more to this caravan than what the media are telling us. Does anyone really think that a few Central Americans just happened to decide to walk to America and arrive just before the election? This is a well-orchestrated political operation.

Let’s correct some of the lies you’re being told.

  • The caravan was not spontaneous. It is being organized by a group called Pueblo Sin Fronteras, which translates as People Without Frontiers or Borders. Who is funding this group?

  • They are not walking. According to The Wall Street Journal, the caravan started October 12th in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It’s roughly 1,420 miles from San Pedro Sula to McAllen, Texas, on the Mexico border. To reach the U.S. border around Election Day, people would have to walk roughly 55 miles a day. Between “photo shoots,” the crowd is being transported by trucks.

  • Has anyone thought about the logistics of moving an army of seven or eight thousand people across 1,400 miles? Who is feeding them? Where are they using restrooms along the way? Where do they sleep at night? Why are no journalists asking any of these questions?

  • Why aren’t national media outlets raising concerns about national security? How are Border Patrol officials supposed to differentiate the refugees from the criminals? Hezbollah is operating all over Latin America. How do we determine whether anyone in the caravan is a jihadist foot soldier? Or a member of MS-13?

  • Let’s assume they are all legitimate refugees. How many times will our elites insist that our values require us to take any poor person who demands to be let in? A Gallup survey last summer determined that 150 million people would like to migrate to the United States.

  • The “process” of vetting migrants at ports of entry is a sham because it requires a court hearing. And the system is already overwhelmed. So migrants get processed, get assigned a court date, and are released. Then they disappear into the American interior where they are protected by sanctuary cities run by Democrats.

What is happening right now is bigger than Donald Trump. It is about whether America can and will defend its borders. And it is shocking to see one of the two major political parties unwilling to speak out against it.

While you are watching this caravan on the evening news, remember the names of every governor, mayor, and city councilman who refuses to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and calls for ICE to be abolished. The stories about sanctuary cities in the U.S. are being printed throughout Latin America.

By the way, there were tens of thousands of people at a Trump rally last night in Texas. Have you noticed any large rallies like that for the Democrats this year? Former Vice President Joe Biden attracted about 500 people to a rally in Las Vegas over the weekend.

Sadly, the biggest Democrat rally you will see this political season is currently marching through Mexico right now. They can’t legally vote now. But the Left’s plan is to ensure that they can vote in the future.

What Next?

It’s not obvious how this “invasion” helps the Left, unless the assumption is that it demoralizes the conservative base.

But given the violence we have seen from the Left lately, what if something happens to the caravan and lots of people get hurt? No doubt the Left would exploit those images, just like it did with the family separations at the border earlier this year.

So what can President Trump do?

Yesterday he tweeted that the wave of illegals was a “national emergency” and that his administration “will now begin cutting off” the “massive foreign aid” we give to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Fox News reports, “The three countries received about $500 million” from U.S. taxpayers last year.

Here’s an idea.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has introduced a bill to fully fund President Trump’s border wall. McCarthy’s bill also includes other commonsense border security measures. Republican leaders want to tackle the issue after the elections, during a lame-duck session of Congress. That’s a mistake.

President Trump should call Congress back into session now. He should address the nation and demand Congress hold a vote on McCarthy’s bill before the November elections. It’s time to force Democrats to either own this crowd planning to storm our border or take some responsibility for securing our borders.

Ask Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi how many millions they will let in before they decide we need a wall. By then I promise you it will be too late.

The Harassment Continues

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was accosted by a group of demonstrators at a Louisville restaurant Friday night.

There is tremendous concern that this kind of harassment will discourage people from volunteering for campaigns, putting signs up, and even voting. My friends, we can’t give in to the Left’s fascist tactics.

Sen. McConnell does not deserve this kind of treatment. But here’s another example. A similar thing happened to Henry Kissinger last week.

Henry Kissinger was born in Germany in 1923. He grew up in a nation where these kinds of tactics took over the country, which he fled in 1938.

I have not always agreed with Henry Kissinger over the years. But it is beyond disgusting that a 95-year-old man is forced to endure these kinds of tactics from so-called “progressives” who are constantly lecturing the rest of us about tolerance.