Trump is right on the national security threat from caravans

Trump is right on the national security threat from caravans
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A growing caravan from Central America is making its way to our border, and a second is following in its footsteps. The first wave of invaders marches proudly under the flag of Honduras, a nation many of them ostensibly find so abhorrent that they are willing to walk the entire length of Mexico to escape it. Meanwhile, their supporters defiantly burned an American flag outside the United States embassy in Honduras.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpHealth insurers Cigna, Humana waive out-of-pocket costs for coronavirus treatment Puerto Rico needs more federal help to combat COVID-19 Fauci says April 30 extension is 'a wise and prudent decision' MORE has pledged that he will deploy the military to defend our territory, but the Democrats are demanding that we throw open the gates and let the hordes through unchecked. The migrants themselves frequently employ both martial and religious terminology, referring to themselves as “warriors” and vowing that nothing will stop them from entering the United States. Only “God” will stop the caravan, one migrant preached, while another declared that “Donald Trump is the antichrist.”


The migrants frequently profess that they are hoping for a better life in the United States, yet the very first action many of them will take upon reaching American soil will be criminal in nature. Others plan to exploit a loophole in our immigration law by reciting a script that will guarantee them an asylum interview. In both cases, however, the migrants will not be passing through our normal legal immigration channels.

But criminal behavior is not a foreign concept to at least some of those currently trudging toward the Rio Grande. Just as President Trump suspected, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that there are “individuals within the caravan who are gang members or have significant criminal histories.” The agency also reported that people from the Middle East and other countries outside Central America are also walking to the United States, which is particularly troubling in light of the fact that we know there is a terrorist presence in Central America.

In early October, just days before the caravan crossed from Honduras into Guatemala, the government of Guatemala announced that it had arrested 100 people “highly linked to terrorist groups” and specifically to ISIS. That information hardly implicates the caravan as an elaborate cover for terrorist infiltration, but it does mean there is a risk that some terrorists, from the Middle East or otherwise, will be able to use the caravan as camouflage to improve their odds of crossing our border undetected.

It is unclear what those unsavory elements plan to do once they get here, but history gives us a better idea of what to expect from the economic refugees who make up the bulk of the caravan. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, the average immigrant household consumes about 33 percent more welfare than citizen households, but immigrant families from Central America and Mexico are abnormally expensive, costing taxpayers a whopping 86 percent more than citizens.

The 10,000 or more migrants in the caravan from Honduras are just the beginning of what is rapidly becoming a deluge. Already, thousands more have assembled in Guatemala to make another coordinated dash for the United States. Whether this copycat caravan succeeds in breaching our borders will likely hinge on our response to the one that is currently underway. If the first group receives kid gloves treatment, the second group will only be emboldened to follow closely on its heels.

These caravans pose a serious national security threat and must be treated as such. President Trump understands this, which is why he has promised to deploy the military to stop them if necessary. The Democrats either cannot or will not recognize the threat, which is why they want to roll out a red carpet for the invaders. Without borders, we fail to exist as a sovereign nation. President Trump is not only right in his approach to fixing our broken immigration system, he is right in his convictions about enforcing the rule of law and protecting our nation in the process.

Jan Brewer served as the former governor of Arizona and is an advisory board member for the 2020 presidential campaign of Donald Trump.