Trump claims ‘criminals’ part of migrant group

WASHINGTON — Without offering evidence to support the claim, President Trump on Monday said a large caravan of Central American migrants includes “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners.”

He also threatened to end foreign aid to countries from which most members of the caravan are from. That includes Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Trump has proposed foreign aid cuts before only to have Republican and Democratic lawmakers reject them and allocate the funds through massive spending bills Trump was forced to sign to avert government shutdowns on his watch.

Mexican forces tried to slow the large group of migrants as they crossed over the border from Guatemala. Citing violence and a lack of jobs, the migrants are trying to enter the U.S. over the objections of Trump and many Republican lawmakers.

U.S. officials have said most of the group are Hondurans. But now the commander in chief says he has alerted U.S. Border Patrol and military leaders that the caravan’s approach amounts to a national emergency.

“Sadly, it looks like Mexico’s Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in,” Trump tweeted Monday.

He did not provide an explanation for the claim, including whether he received the alleged information from U.S. intelligence officials. Trump frequently makes false statements that appeal to and fire up his conservative base; the crucial congressional midterms are just two weeks away.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when lawmakers pursued measures to close immigration loopholes, the notion of Middle Eastern smuggling rings penetrating U.S. borders became part of a list of fears about the country’s vulnerabilities. But there have not been any instances of attempted terrorism plots by people from Middle Eastern countries who illegally crossed the southern border. There is only one example of a terrorist coming across the northern border, in a 1999 plot.

The president, who last week said he would send active-duty American military troops to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, added he has “alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy (sic).”

Sending active-duty troops to the border for a domestic law enforcement matter would require congressional approval. Both chambers, however, are slated to be in recess until the week after the Nov. 6 elections. The 1878 Posse Comitatus Act bars a sitting president from using the military as a police force, but he could ask the House and Senate to grant him a waiver — though Senate Democrats would likely block it.

Trump ended his first tweet with a demand that Congress “Must change laws!” He told his followers “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!” he wrote Monday. “So unfair to those who come in legally.”

The New York Times contributed to this report.