U.S. Latino history in jeopardy
Honduran caravan restarts journey northward to U.S.
Across the U.S., sites connected to key moments in Latino civil rights are in danger of disappearing.
The number of migrant parents entering the United States with children has surged to record levels in the three months since President Donald Trump ended family separations at the border, dealing the administration a deepening crisis three weeks before the midterm elections.
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 16,658 family members in September, the highest one-month total on record and an 80 percent increase from July, according to unpublished Homeland Security statistics obtained by The Washington Post.
Large groups of 100 or more Central American parents and children have been crossing the Rio Grande and the deserts of Arizona to turn themselves in, and by citing a fear of return, the families are assigned a court date and released from custody.
“We’re getting hammered daily,” said one Border Patrol agent in south Texas who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.
Having campaigned on a promise to stop illegal immigration, Trump now faces a spiraling enforcement challenge with no ready solutions. The soaring arrest numbers — and a new caravan of Central American migrants heading north — have left him in a furious state, White House aides say.
On Wednesday, the more than 2,000 Hondurans traveling en masse through Guatemala resumed their journey toward the United States as Trump sought to turn the caravan into a political issue three weeks before midterm elections.
A day after warning Central American governments they risk losing U.S. aid if they don’t do something and saying that anyone entering the country illegally would be arrested and deported, Trump began urging GOP allies to campaign on border security. Trump has gotten regular updates on the border numbers, telling senior policy adviser Stephen Miller and chief of staff John Kelly that something has to change, according to senior administration officials.
Aides including Miller and Sarah Huckabee Sanders have told the president that many of the children coming across are being smuggled illegally, and that the United States is being taken advantage of.
The president’s anger has left him pushing again for a reinstatement of a family separation policy in some form, which he believes is the only thing that has worked, despite the controversy it triggered. One senior official conceded that the separations were halted to stanch political fury, but ended up sending a “clear
signal” that people could cross, adding “now we’re actually getting crushed.”