The migrant caravan situation just got a bit more bizarre, as the invaders had the audacity to demand President Trump either let them into the United States or give them $50,000 each to go home. This came in the form of a letter, delivered by a group numbering approximately 100 people on Tuesday, Dec. 12 to the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, Mexico.
They arrived around 11 a.m., and their objective was clear and to the point: Let them in or pay. Their price tag stemmed as a group effort and is meant as reparation for crimes they felt the U.S. had dealt Honduras.
“It may seem like a lot of money to you,” said organizer Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa. “But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras.” The money, he said, would make it possible for them to be able to return home and start businesses. Wait, doesn’t that sound like the American dream?
The group arrogantly gave the government 72 hours to respond, although they said they didn’t know what they would do if their demands were not met.
A Second Letter and More Demands
A couple hours later, at 1:20 p.m., a second letter was delivered to the Consulate by a different group. The migrants in this assignment totaled around 50 and their demands rallied around speeding up the asylum process. They specifically wanted the “U.S. immigration officials to admit up to 300 asylum seekers at the San Ysidro Port of Entry each day.” The port currently admits between 40 and 100 per day.
The letter bearers claim the pace is too slow and violates American and international laws while also putting vulnerable migrants at risk.
“In the meantime, families, women and children who have fled our countries continue to suffer and the civil society of Tijuana continue to be forces [sic] to confront this humanitarian crisis, a refugee crisis caused in great part by decades of U.S. intervention in Central America,” the letter states.
They also request that Mexican officials stop working to deport caravan migrants and for the U.S. to remove Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez from office.
Xochtil Castillo, a caravan member who met with Mexican officials, said of the roughly 6,000 migrants that reached Tijuana, approximately “700 have voluntarily returned to their country of origin, 300 have been deported, and 2,500 have applied for humanitarian visas in Mexico.” The San Diego Union-Tribune added: “About 3,500 are presumed to have either crossed illegally into the United States, moved to other Mexican border cities, or simply fallen through the cracks.”
“A lot of people are leaving because there is no solution here,” said Douglas Matute, 38, of Tijuana. “We thought they would let us in. But Trump sent the military instead of social workers.”
Well, when you arrogantly – and even violently – march toward and demand entry to a foreign country, acting for all accounts and purposes as an invading army, what do you expect? Trump has been adamant about beefing up security around our borders and building the wall; why would anyone think he would welcome a horde of protesting migrants with open arms? On the contrary, the president has said he will shut down the government before he’d open the gates to the mass intruders. And, making even more demands, trying to bribe our government with “let us in or pay us to leave” isn’t going to win them any favor either.
