A caravan of 1,000 men, women and children migrants hoping to seek asylum in the United States has reportedly been disbanded according to Mexican authorities. The group made headlines last weekend when it crossed into the Mexico with the goal of ultimately making it to the United States during Easter weekend. The migrants are mainly from Honduras.
The group claimed in an interview with The Associated Press that they were struggling with logistics of getting over 1,000 people across the border and that it was never really their intention to reach the United States anyway.
President Trump took credit for the group’s disbanding. “I have just heard that the caravan coming up from Honduras is broken up,” President Trump told reporters at the White House. “And Mexico did that and they did it because frankly, I said you really have to do it,” he said.
He also released a statement on Twitter. “The Caravan is largely broken up thanks to the strong immigration laws of Mexico and their willingness to use them so as not to cause a giant scene at our Border. Because of the Trump Administrations actions, Border crossings are at a still UNACCEPTABLE 46 year low. Stop drugs!” he wrote.
President Trump had used the story as a reason to nix a DACA deal with Democrats earlier in the week.
Mexican authorities noted that they were following their own immigration laws and were not necessarily following orders from President Trump. “It is not the responsibility of the Mexican government to make immigration decisions for the United States or any other nation,” read a joint statement from the government’s foreign and interior ministries.
The Mexican government announced that they were offering protections to some of the migrants, who call themselves, Pueblo sin Fronteras, (People Without Borders), but that others would be deported. As many as 400 of the migrants had been deported by Monday authorities said.
President Trump was criticized for claiming that the group was seeking protection under the DACA program, which, potentially having arrived in the States after 2007 they are ineligible for, as well as addressing the issue outside a Church on Easter Sunday.
The migrant group issued a statement on their on their Facebook page demanding an end to gang violence and LGBT discrimination in their home country. They also demanded that the United States and Mexico respect their status as refugees and allow them to continue their work. The group claims that they have as much right to be called citizens as the people of the country they are traveling to.