The Migrant Caravan as Political Bandwagon

[TomSea]

The Migrant Caravan as Political Bandwagon
Ioan Grillo/Huehuetán, Mexico

A thousand miles south of the Rio Grande, Lesly Xiomara Chirinos plodded along a Mexican road comforting her year-old son Murphy, her partner holding up an umbrella to shield them from the punishing sun. On Oct. 13, they abandoned their home in the Honduran city of La Ceiba to join several thousand people on the so-called migrant caravan heading north. Since then, they have been marching for long hours, jumping on pickup trucks, sleeping in parks, living on handouts of food.

Chirinos, 31, says she fled because of death threats by gang members trying to shake down the family grocery store. In Honduras, extortion is often backed up by murder. “They wait in front of the shop with big guns, and we are scared to go out,” she says. “The military police are outside, and they don’t do anything.” Their hope now is to get asylum in the U.S., where they would be protected from the gangs and be able to work to support the rest of their family.

On the other side of the border, politics awaits. The caravan of migrants and asylum seekers has become a virtual obsession of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has railed against it in tweets and at rallies over the past two weeks. He has claimed that it has been infiltrated by gang members, that dangerous people from the Middle East are traveling with it or that the Democrats are behind it–all without evidence. Trump may see the caravan as a potent political issue ahead of the midterm elections, with an Oct. 18 poll showing that 55% of voters believe immigration is a very important issue. He also claimed on Oct. 29 that he plans to end birthright citizenship by Executive Order, a move many lawyers believe would be unconstitutional.

Read more at: http://www.time.com/5441423/migrant-caravan-politics/