Central American migrants hitchhike on a pick-up truck in Mexico on their way to the US. © Reuters / Luis Echeverria
US President Donald Trump has for the first time directly addressed Central American migrants making their way towards the US southern border, telling them that they will not be permitted to enter the country illegally.
In a Thursday afternoon tweet, Trump told migrants that the US is “not letting people into the United States illegally” and advised them to go back to their own countries and “apply for citizenship like millions of others” have done.
Previously, Trump had referred to some of the migrants making the trek to the border as “hardened criminals” and suggested that “unknown Middle Easterners” were among the crowds. Earlier on Thursday, the Pentagon announced that “several hundred” US troops would be sent to the border to beef up security there.
The migrant caravan swelled to an estimated 7,000 people last week after hundreds of poverty-stricken Hondurans left their country two weeks ago. Some have already arrived at the Guatemala-Mexico border, breaking through fences and clashes with riot police, while others attempted to cross by river on makeshift rafts.
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