Trump warns military will close border

President Donald Trump said he would mobilise the US military to close the border with Mexico to stop an ‘‘assault’’ on the nation by a caravan of migrants from Central America.

Trump, who ran in 2016 promising to tighten US immigration laws and staunch the inflow of undocumented migrants, has called for cutting off foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador if they don’t stop the migrants.

‘‘In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught – and if unable to do so I will call up the US Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!’’ Trump said on Twitter.

Trump also attempted to politicise the issue by claiming – without providing evidence – that Democrats are backing the human movement to bolster what he said was the party’s preference for ‘‘open borders and existing weak laws’’. Democrats in Congress generally have supported a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants – but only those who meet certain criteria – and have never proposed doing away with border rules.

Democrats in 2013 led the charge to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, an effort that stalled because of opposition from Republicans who controlled the House.

The issue has gained new urgency under Trump, whose ‘‘zero tolerance’’ policy of enforcing border laws came under fire earlier this year after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a plan that included separating migrant families. Though the administration abandoned that policy, Trump has said he was considering bringing it back as a deterrent.

Currently more than 2000 people – including many who left home so quickly they brought only backpacks – are making their way from Honduras, travelling through Guatemala and heading towards the US, The Associated Press reports.

The use of military to help secure the US border is not unprecedented. Trump in April authorised the National Guard to protect the border as a similar group of migrants headed up from Central America. He later credited authorities in Mexico for breaking up that assembly. The Defence Department has in the past helped the Department of Homeland Security with border security. – TNS

AP Honduran migrants walk along a highway in Cocales, Guatemala, on their way to the US border yesterday.

AP President Donald Trump has cranked up his attacks on migrants and the Democrats as the US mid-term elections loom.