Kean speaks up about the migrant caravan
By Estefani Hernandez | Published by Nov. 26, 2018
Mexican boder. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The migrant caravan continues to grow and head towards the United States, provoking a strong political reaction just days before the 2018 midterm elections.
Composed of migrants from Central America, primarily El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, this migrant caravan hopes to reach the United States and seek asylum as refugees.
Nazih Richani, director of Latin American Studies, understands the importance of acknowledging and embracing all the different cultures here in the United States and speaks briefly on the migrant caravan.
“These people are escaping elements of poverty and crime, it is symbolic, against the political system in their region” states Richani.
Richani explains that most of these countries in Central America took the biggest hit after the 2007 and 2008 economic crisis. He states, “These countries that are participating in the caravan are suffering from under-employment, poverty, narco- trafficking like never before.”
In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump claimed he would declare a “national emergency” over the caravan. The president also made several claims concerning immigration and the caravan as he tweeted the following:
“Every time you see a Caravan or people illegally coming, or attempting to come, into our country illegally, think of and blame the Democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic immigration laws! Remember the midterms! So unfair to those who come in legally.”
Making the caravan one of his prime targets as he campaigns for Republicans down the stretch of the midterm elections, Trump refers to the caravan as an “invasion.”
“The president is utilizing this to the best of his advantage, gaining support using the racial card and it seems that it has worked,” stated Richani. “A good amount of people remain behind him as he utilizes the scare tactic toward this caravan.”
As the caravan approaches the Gulf Coast states of Veracruz in Mexico, signs of division and frustration are merging as the large group tries to get closer to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Claudia Argueta, Junior, the daughter of Guatemalan natives states, “They are trying to show the countries that they are living in really horrible conditions at this point and that some changes need to be made.”
The caravan has continued to grow as more than 1,000 migrants in a second caravan have worked its way across the river from Guatemala and have begun arriving in the southern Mexico city of Tapachula.
Making it clear that he will do anything in his power to stop this caravan, President Trump has threatened to dispatch extra troops and shut the border down entirely.
“In the position of power that he [President Trump] is in, he is using this to his bene t for his campaign,” states Argueta. “He has created a lot of hatred toward these people and it is destroying us as a country.”
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