Migrant warning

Block caravan or no aid for Honduras: Don

President Trump warned Honduras on Tuesday that his administration will cut off all aid to the country unless it stops a large column of migrants making its way to the US border.

“The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that if the large Caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!” Trump announced on Twitter.

The group of migrants — estimated at about 2,000 people — arrived at the Guatemalan border on Monday on their trek to the United States and was initially turned back by about 100 police officers, the Associated Press reported.

The migrants, carrying backpacks and bottles of water, eventually pushed past the Guatemalan officers and spent the night in a small town across the border before beginning to march again Tuesday.

Immigration officials in Mexico told the marchers that they would have to meet requirements for entry or would be turned back.

“The provisions of the law on migration are observed at all times and Mexican authorities are required to make sure they are enforced,” Mexico’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Vice President Mike Pence tweeted that he had talked to Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez to drive Trump’s point home.

“Delivered strong message from @POTUS: no more aid if caravan is not stopped,” Pence wrote. “Told him U.S. will not tolerate this blatant disregard for our border & sovereignty.”

Honduras received $175 million in aid during fiscal year 2017, according to the US Agency for International Development.

Katie Waldman, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said the agency was monitoring the stream of migrants and working with Mexico and Honduras.

But she said this is “what we see day-in and day-out at the border as a result of well-advertised and well-known catch-and-release loopholes,” and urged Congress to act on immigration reform.

The migrants say they are fleeing violence and poverty in their home country.

Keilin Umana, who is 2 months’ pregnant, said she and her unborn child were threatened with death.

“We are not criminals — we are migrants,” the 21-year-old nurse told the AP, adding that she’d been walking for four days.

In April, a large group of migrants from countries in Central America also headed to the US to seek asylum. But many of them split off from the group during the long and dangerous trip, leaving a few hundred to apply for asylum at the US border.