Migrant caravan: Asylum seekers travel through Mexico as Trump walks back suggestion that migrants throwing stones will be shot at border
Critics say the president is stoking fears about the caravan for political reasons ahead of midterm elections
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Your support makes all the difference.Thousands of refugees and migrants from Central America are walking and hitchhiking northwards through Mexico, with Donald Trump walking back his suggestion that any migrants found throwing stones at the US border could be shot by the military.
In addition to this original group, more than 1,000 migrants in a second caravan that forced its way across the river from Guatemala have begun arriving in the southern Mexico city of Tapachula.
President Trump made clear Thursday he will do everything in his power to stop them, dispatching extra troops, threatening to shut border entirely and saying in an afternoon press conference the military would consider rocks thrown at active troops "firearms". He later said that no migrants would be shot by the American military, but that anyone throwing rocks would be arrested.
The issue is being amplified by the president with less than a week before the midterm elections, and various sources have implied or stated without proof that Democrats and progressive donors are somehow funding the caravan that is composed of individuals and families fleeing dangerous conditions in their home countries in Central America. Others, including Mr Trump, have claimed — again, without proof — that the caravan includes "Middle Easterners". The president also indicated that he has no proof that Middle Easterners are in the caravan.
While numerous news outlets and watchdog groups have tried and failed to find proof for those claims — and none has been provided — Republicans clearly see a winning strategy in trying to tie Democrats to the caravan.
In the contentious Texas Senate race, for example, Senator Ted Cruz has attacked his Democratic opponent, Congressman Beto O'Rourke, and claimed that his campaign has been funding the migrant caravan. That statement was not substantiated with evidence that any of that financial support has occurred.
To see how the day unfolded, follow our live blog below.
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Donald Trump gave a press conference last night about immigration, before heading to a 'Make America Great Again' rally.
The president said migrants who make it to the border and throw stones might be shot by the US military. In a speech at the White House filled with falsehoods, the president said he was seeking to limit asylum claims only to those who applied at legal entry points. He claimed the move was necessary because a series of migrant caravans– still up to a 1,000 miles from the border – was considered by some people to be “an invasion”.
“Asylum is not a programme for those living in poverty. There are billions of people in the world living at the poverty level. The United States cannot possibly absorb them all,” he said.
People carry a friend to an ambulance after suffering from heat stroke at an abandoned motel in Matias Romero, Oaxaca state, Mexico.
Credit: AP
Thousands of migrants were forced to walk a 40 mile journey after the bus they had hoped for did not take them.
Donald Trump and the Republicans have released what has been described as one of the most racist political adverts in recent years and an attempt to rally the president’s base by portraying Central American migrants as police killers set to overrun the country.
You can read more on this from our US editor, Andrew Buncombe, here:
A group of migrants making their way north to the US from Central America have filed a lawsuit against the US government alleging that President Donald Trump has violated their due process rights under the Fifth Amendment by suggesting he plans on stopping the caravan.
The lawsuit was filed on Thursday in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, and names the president alongside Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and several offices related to American immigration forces.
"Trump's professed and enacted policy towards thousands of caravanners seeking asylum in the United States is shockingly unconstitutional," the lawsuit reads.
It continues: "President Trump continues to abuse the law, including constitutional rights, to deter Central Americans from exercising their lawful right to seek asylum in the United States, and the fact that innocent children are involved matters none to President Trump".
President Donald Trump has suggested that American troops he plans on positioning at the US border would shoot at migrants if they throw rocks at the soldiers.
Mr Trump said so during a meandering speech in the White House on Thursday, when he also announced that he would be signing an executive order "next week" that will be aimed at restricting American asylum rules.
The president suggested that those migrants, once they make it to the US-Mexico border, could be shot if they throw rocks, because the military would consider rocks as firearms.
"I hope not. I hope not — but it's the military," Mr Trump said when asked if shots would be fired.
"I hope there won't be that," he continued before suggesting the rocks would be considered as firearms "because there's not much difference when you get hit in the face with a rock".
President Donald Trump has said that he is prepared to send as many as 15,000 troops to the US-Mexico border — but how does that compare to other deployments of American troops around the world?
If that happens, there will be roughly the same number of troops at that border as are stationed in Afghanistan, where the US has been fighting a war since 2001.
It would be much larger than the 2,000 troops in Syria, and the 5,200 in Iraq.
The US also has troops stationed in friendly countries, including 44,857 in Germany, 25,598 in South Korea, 58,886 in Japan, 10,121 in the UK, 4,836 in Bahrain, and 14,690 in Italy.
The racist advert released by Mr Trump claiming that Democrats allowed cop killer Luis Bracamontes to stay in the United States is actually false, as it turns out.
Seeking to energize his base with just days to go, the president tweeted a video featuring Bracamones, who killed tow police deputies in the Sacramento are in 2014. Bracamontes is shown spewing profanities during his trial, and the president claimed that "Democrats let him into our country", and that "Democrats let him stay".
Problem is, though, that those statements aren't completely accurate — he entered the US during administrations of both Democrats and Republicans, and was actually released after arrest by a close Trump ally. Here's the timeline:
Bracamontes first came to the United States in 1993 at the age of 16 when Demcoratic President Bill Clinton was president. He was subsequently arrested in 1996 on deportable drug offenses related to marijuana possession. He then served four months in jail and was then deported by US officials.
He served time then in the so-called tent-city jail overseen by former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio — a Republican and the recipient of Mr Trump's first presidential pardon.
Baracamontes then returned to the US, and was arrested once again on drug charges in 1998, but was released "for unknown reasons" by Mr Arpaio's office.
He was arrested again in 2001 on marijuana charges and deported three days ltaer. Republican President George W Bush was president at the time.
Baracamontes then returned to the US a short time later — he was then married in 2002 and eventually moved to the Salt Lake City area before killing those police in 2014 during a methamphetamine-fueled trip.
The migrant caravan is facing some treacherous conditions, and it is not clear how many might be able to make it to either Mexico City or the US-Mexico border.
The group has seen 20 days of scorching heat, chills, rain, illness, and constant walking — conditions that have taken their toll on the psyches and health of the migrants.
The caravan reportedly began its march on Friday after spending a night in the rain in Matias Romero, Mexico. It was not clear if they were going to head east toward Mexico City or try to make it to the US border — a trip that is considered to be much more treacherous.
Senator Bob Corker — a Republican who is resigning from his office — has weighed in on the migrant caravan, and has contradicted the messaging coming from the White House and many Republicans.
Mr Corker said during a recent event that the migrants coming from Central America are "being tortured ... I have a feeling that if you were living in one of these Central American countries and you had little girls and little boys you're raising you might be trying to figur eout a way to come to the great US of A".
Republican Senator Ted Cruz is attempting to weaponize the migrant caravan against his challenger Congressman Beto O'Rourke, and has suggested without evidence that the Democrat is funding the group of Central Americans through campaign donations.
In a tweet, Mr Cruz wrote: "Two basic [questions] every reporter should ask Beto today: (1) should the 'caravan' be allowed to cross illegally into Texas? (Beto refuses to answer.) And (2) did your campaign dollars illegally fund their doing so?"
Neither the Cruz campaign nor the O'Rourke campaign have publicly commented on the accusations since the tweet was published on Friday morning.
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