Thousands of Central American caravan migrants continue their advancement toward the southern border of the United States, marking roughly a month on the road and about 1,200 miles of northward progression this week since leaving Honduras October 13, Fox News reported.
“The caravans are expanding rapidly and the threat to our sovereignty, security and entire immigration system is grave and growing,” White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told The Daily Beast on Monday evening.
Coverage of the migrants’ advancement took something of a back seat to coverage of the midterm elections in recent days — and the president’s detractors wasted no time in casting the change in intensity of the coverage as “proof” that the caravan presents no real dangers.
That contention, of course, is patently untrue.
The migrant caravan’s per day average mileage traveled has increased from about 30 to 185 miles a day, thanks to hitchhiking and transportation assistance, Fox News explained.
That “assistance” comes at great physical risk, as it includes clinging to open platform trailers, riding in or on trucks meant for livestock or for transporting cars, and engaging in other forms of wildly unsafe transportation.
One Honduran man has already died, having fallen from a platform truck in the Mexican state of Chiapas, the outlet also reported.
Others have been badly injured.
One group is currently approaching the western Mexico city of Guadalajara, per Fox News.
Some members of the four groups U.S. officials are tracking are projected to reach the U.S. border near San Diego by Sunday, ABC News reported on Tuesday morning.
The migrant caravan presents an urgent national security crisis and a steep challenge for Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen‚ a challenge for which the president appears to believe Nielsen has proven herself perhaps ill-suited.
President Donald Trump, who canceled a trip to meet with Nielsen and the U.S. troops in South Texas this week, plans to remove the secretary from her position in coming weeks, according to reporting from The Washington Post on Monday.
Nielsen would mark one year on the job December 6.
Related: Caravan of Thousands of People Is Again Pushing Its Way Toward the U.S.
Not everyone is on board with the president’s decision, including Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, who selected her for the job and is fighting her removal, The Post reported, citing unnamed aides.
Potential temporary and permanent replacements for the DHS secretary position floated by The Post include management undersecretary Claire M. Grady, U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner Kevin McAleenan, Transportation Security Administration administrator David P. Pekoske, and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
In a startling revelation, Guatemala’s President announced that ~100 ISIS terrorists had been apprehended in that Central American nation. But why should Americans care about this? The caravan of Central American migrants is currently making its way north.https://t.co/D0bnW56oBb
— Judicial Watch ? (@JudicialWatch) November 12, 2018
Illegals “demanding” asylum in the US! Well they certainly have a lot in common with the liberals who also think all of their demands should be met.
— Maggie McPhee (@freetospeekout) November 13, 2018
100 tired migrants are going to be greeted by 15,000 US military and 200,000 border officers.#Maga
— Sharon ? The Resistance ? (@dontiann) November 13, 2018
And check out this video:
Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and regular contributor to LifeZette.
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