President Trump is threatening to close the Mexico–United States border after receiving word about a migrant caravan carrying roughly seven thousand Hondurans, Guatemalans, and Salvadorians headed to The United States. The caravan crossed into Guatemala on Monday and the Mexican federal police were unable to stop the group at their border. They breached a fence Friday at the Mexico-Guatemalan border and pushed past border patrol agents.

Citizens of Canada and Mexico are not allowed to get through the borders. But citizens of other, non-bordering countries have to be processed by law if they claim amnesty. As the caravan moves, it grows as people hop on from intersected countries. Trump has also threatened to cut off aid to Central American countries that let the caravan through their borders.

“We have today informed the countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that if they allow their citizens, or others, to journey through their borders and up to the United States, with the intention of entering our country illegally, all payments made to them will STOP (END)!” — Donald J. Trump, October 17, 2018.

Rep. Eliot Engle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said it would be illegal for the president to withhold foreign aid to Central American countries appropriated by Congress.

“….In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught – and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!..” — Donald J. Trump, October 18, 2018

Many of the migrants said they are fleeing violence and murderous gangs in their homelands. Meanwhile, in a series of tweets, Trump claimed that criminals such as MS-13 gang members and unknown Middle Easterners are amid the crowd. He also again said Democrats are to blame for not working with his administration on immigration reform.