Group organizing 'caravan' of migrants issued demands to US government

Over the weekend, President Trump created a media frenzy when he tweeted about "caravans" of migrants headed toward the United States and declared an end to negotiations with Democrats over codifying Obama's unconstitutional Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA). The president  was apparently reacting to a BuzzFeed News report by Adolfo Flores, a journalist who has been traveling with a group of approximately 1,000 Central American migrants as they make their way toward the United States.

This "caravan" of migrants has been organized by a self-described humanitarian group called "Pueblo Sin Fronteras," translated: People without Borders. In a press release posted on Facebook on March 23, the group issued a series of demands to the governments of several Central American countries, the United States, and Mexico.

They demand that the United States "open the borders to us because we are as much citizens as the people of the countries where we are and/or travel."

They also call for an end to deportations of illegal immigrants in the U.S., a continuation of temporary protected status for refugees, and for the United States to defund the Mexican government's programs detaining migrants to deport them.

In a Fox News segment that aired Sunday morning, National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd warned that once the migrants organized by this group cross the border illegally, Border Patrol will lose track of them due to catch-and-release policies.

Judd said that Sin Fronteras "should be prosecuted here in the United States." He also called for the Senate to use the "nuclear option," ending the filibuster to enable the Republican majorities in Congress to pass laws enabling immigration law enforcement to end the catch-and-release program.

After Fox News aired this segment with Judd, President Trump sent a tweet declaring an end to his overtures to Democrats on reaching a DACA deal. He further called on the Senate to repeal the filibuster rule and pass new border security measures.

The president has been ridiculed as "ignorant" about DACA because the people traveling in this "caravan" would not be eligible for the DACA program created unconstitutionally by President Barack Obama. However, that has nothing to do with whether they will make it into the country and disappear into the population, perhaps in sanctuary cities that will do nothing toward deporting them. Additionally, the nuances of America's incoherent immigration policies may be lost on migrants traveling from violent and chaotic countries in Central America. Recall that during the 2014 child migrant crisis, Vice President Joe Biden was sent to the southern border to explain that children traveling to America that year would be ineligible for DACA amnesty.

This new wave of migration on the southern border and the border patrol's apparent inability to detain and deport migrants violating U.S. law demonstrates that amnesty remains an attractive incentive for illegal immigration. It further shows that the nation's current border security and law enforcement agencies are ill-equipped to respond to surges in illegal immigration. Congress must remedy this immediately.

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