WASHINGTON—President Trump on Thursday threatened to deploy the military and close the southern border if Mexico doesn’t stop an “onslaught” of Latin American migrants passing through its country from reaching the U.S.
On Twitter, the president blamed Democrats for what he described as “weak” immigration laws that have allowed undocumented migrants to enter the U.S. The Republican-controlled Senate and House this year rejected multiple immigration bills, including one backed by the president that would have combined border-security funding with other measures sought by the Democrats.
“I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to U.S,” the president wrote in his three-part tweet.
“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!”
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The president added that border security is “far more important” to him than the recently concluded new North American trade deal.
A spending package passed by Congress last month postponed a debate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security into December, effectively pushing back fights that Republicans want to avoid before the midterms, including the president’s demand for funding for a border wall with Mexico.
A record number of asylum-seeking families from Latin America have recently overwhelmed border agents and immigration authorities. Border Patrol facilities are crowded with newly arrived families, bed space at family detention centers in Texas is at a premium, and immigration-court backlogs are growing.
On Saturday, Mr. Trump advocated for the policy of separating families who cross into the U.S. illegally, saying that fear of being separated from children deters some immigrants.
“If they feel there will be separation, they don’t come,” he told reporters at the White House. “You’ve got some really bad people out there.”
Mr. Trump warned the Honduras government on Tuesday that the U.S. would cut off aid to the country if a caravan of Honduran migrants headed for the U.S. wasn’t stopped, as Mexican authorities took measures to prevent the caravan from marching north.
Write to Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com
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