Trump blames Dems for U.S. immigration woes, migrant caravan

President Donald Trump told a huge crowd of supporters at a Friday night rally in Mesa that the large caravan of migrants traveling from Central America trying to reach the U.S. border through Mexico has some “bad people” and accused Democrats of openly inviting undocumented immigrants to invade the United States.

Trump also blasted sanctuary cities, chain migration, visa lottery programs, MS-13 gang members, and “catch and release” immigration policies he blamed on Democrats.

“The Democrat Party has openly invited millions of illegal aliens to break our laws violate our borders and overwhelm our nation,” Trump said during the rally.

The event at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport was designed to stoke support for Republican candidates

in tight races ahead of the midterm elections in November, including Arizona Senate candidate Martha McSally, who is in a neck-and-neck race with Democratic opponent Kyrsten Sinema.

McSally, who arrived with Trump on Marine One after an event at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, briefly addressed the crowd, telling supporters she supports Trump’s plan to build a wall along the entire southern border, one of his signature campaign pledges.

“On border security, President Trump, it has been an honor to be leading in the house to make sure we build the wall, “McSally said, prompting chants of “Build the Wall.”

McSally also acknowledged in the audience Mary Ann Mendoza, whose son Brandon Mendoza, a Mesa police sergeant, was killed in 2014 by a wrong-way driver who was in the country illegally and had not been deported despite having been convicted of crimes two decades earlier in Colorado.

On Friday, hours before Trump spoke in Mesa, media reports showed the caravan streaming across a bridge from Guatemala into Mexico over the river that separates the two countries. The caravan is headed toward the U.S. border in hopes of seeking refugee inside this country.

“Right now, as you know (in Mexico the caravan) it’s on their southern border and they are finding some bad people in that group,” Trump said. “And you see the people coming up and you listen to the fake news back there and you think they are all wonderful people.

“You got some bad people in those groups. You got some tough people in those groups. And I will tell you something, this country doesn’t want them.”

Trump predicted that the caravan would help drive Republicans to the polls in November.

“Democrats have become the party of crime,” he said. “It will be the election of Kavanaugh, the caravan, law and order, tax cuts.”

Better border security was a major theme of the speech. Trump said heightened efforts were needed to stop the flow of illegal drugs and halt immigrants bent on committing crime in the United States.

“The casualties in the Democrats’ open borders crusade are innocent American families and lives,” he said.

Trump said that should Democrats seize control of Congress, they would institute policies that give illegal immigrants benefits including welfare, an education and a driver’s license.

“A Democratic victory in November would be a bright flashing invitation to every trafficker, drug dealer and illegal alien on the planet,” Trump said. “Come on in. Come on in, folks.”

Trump said that Democrats eventually would want to give immigrants a car.

“Then they’ll say a car’s not good enough,” he said. “We want a Rolls Royce.”

During an earlier discussion of the issue at Luke Air Force Base, Trump criticized U.S. immigration laws and said judges are making “horrendous decisions” on immigration that he hopes will be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“People are coming over from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and some of these people are hardened criminals, not good people,” he said. “These are tough, tough people, and I don’t want them in our country and our country doesn’t want them in our country.”

In a series of tweets, Trump has threatened to withhold billions of dollars in U.S. aid to the Northern Triangle countries of Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala unless the caravan is stopped and also has threatened to send the military to the southern border unless the Mexican government stops the caravan from passing through its country.

Several Trump supporters who attended the rally said they agree with Trump’s strong stance.

“Stop it,” said Vickie Matsumonji, 74, referring to the caravan. Matsumonji, a retired filmmaker from Lakeside, drove 31⁄2 hours to attend the rally, and was one of the first to get inside.

Matsumonji said she believed the caravan was being financed by left-leaning groups determined to help migrants reach the U.S. border, countering similar assertions by immigrant advocates that the caravan was being organized by right-leaning groups to fire up Trump’s base just a few weeks before the election.

The caravan formed in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world, based on homicide rates. It swelled to as large as 4,000 people when it reached Guatemala in the middle of this week, according to media reports.

The new caravan comes six months after another caravan left Tapachula, a city in Mexico near the border with Guatemala with as many as 1,600 people, prompting Trump to sign orders deploying National Guard troops to assist the Border Patrol with border security.

In all, 1,621 troops remain deployed along the border, assisting the Border Patrol in a secondary role. The total includes 477 guard troops deployed in Arizona’s Tucson and Yuma sectors.

Several hundred migrants who traveled with the first caravan, mostly men and women from Honduras traveling with children, reached Tijuana in late April. After initially being turned back by U.S. border officers, most of the families who traveled with the caravan eventually were allowed to enter the United States. and were placed in detention centers until they were either deported back to their countries, or released to pursue asylum claims.

Trump campaigned to crack down on illegal immigration and promised to build a massive wall on the southern border with Mexico.

At Friday’s rally, the crowd intermittently broke out into chants of “Build the Wall.”

Dean Curtis, 75, a retired civil engineer and land surveyor from Phoenix, said Trump should follow through with this threat to send the military to the border if Mexico doesn’t stop the newest caravan from reaching the United States.

“You got to have some reaction. You got to stop this invasion. That is what I call it, an invasion,” Curtis said, wearing a Vietnam veteran hat and T-shirt inside the hangar at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

The caravan has thrust the issue of immigration back into the spotlight but Davis said he does not believe it would galvanize Republican voters to the polls as much as the recent confirmation battle over U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“It won’t be a main driver,” Curtis said, said of the immigration issue.

Judy Heinhorst, 51, a paralegal from Mesa, was attending her first Trump rally after moving to Arizona from Illinois in February.

She agreed that the Kavanaugh battle will be the main driver prompting Republicans to the polls in November over anger at tactics used by Democrats.

But the strong stance Trump has taken against the migrant caravan also likely would benefit Republican candidates at that polls, she said.

“For us, it riles up his base even more,” Heinhorst said. “I think it will help Republicans especially to see how strong Trump has taken a stance.”