On Tuesday morning, Donald Trump returned to pounding the fear drum over the terrible, terrible threat of a “big new caravan” heading toward the United States. Trump has been shouting about a newer, meaner, more threatening caravan on its way from Honduras since his Oval Office fiasco. A caravan that is sure to be composed of Middle Eastern terrorists, wild coyotes, and many, many “young, strong men.”
In fact, CBS is reporting that a new group is on the way, though not quite as Trump describes. Far from being some overwhelming threat, the new caravan consists of about 600 people, “mainly women and children,” who gathered in the rain to begin a walk that will take weeks, if not months, to complete. And they’re not coming because they believe some fairy tale of Americans ready to welcome them in. There’s no delusion of an easy life ahead that’s sending them shuffling north along muddy roads. They know what’s happening at the U.S. border. They know their odds are long, if not impossible.
They are coming out of simple desperation. They’re coming because all sense of order is crumbling around them, leaving them subject to violence and disorder on every level. They’re coming because they have no choice. This, this is what has put another 600 women and children on the road.
One woman who refused to give her name because of safety concerns said her 9-year-old daughter had already been raped so badly she suffered medical problems.
There are some men in the group. One of them begged a journalist on the scene for his umbrella, saying that he feared that his small daughter would get sick in the downpour. Few of those gathered brought much more than the clothes on their back, and they had only the food given to them by locals they passed. That’s the kind of people setting out in the dark, in the rain, to walk across three nations. Not because they believe America is the easy path, but because they know that remaining is not an option. These are the people Trump is determined to turn away.
Trump is right that this deserves a military response—as in, the United States should be sending helicopters to rescue these people and bring them safely to a new home.
While Trump is holding up this group of desperate refugees from violence as a reason to build a wall, the truth is that three larger caravans have already arrived over the last year. They didn’t swarm across the border. Instead, they are waiting in an overcrowded camp in Tijuana.
The story of the caravans only emphasizes that the real issue at the southern border isn’t dealing with people who cross in the rugged open spaces away from ports of entry. It’s handling those who legally apply for, and desperately need, asylum. And a wall won’t help that problem in the slightest.