President Donald Trump has threatened to cut funding and aid to Honduras if the country does not stop a "caravan" of people headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border in a bid to seek asylum in the U.S.
Dubbed the "March of the Migrant," a group of as many as 3,000 people crossed from Honduras into Guatemala on Monday, making their way north toward Mexico, where they plan to continue their journey on to the U.S. border, according to Reuters.
The migrants, whose numbers had reportedly doubled since Saturday, persevered, despite being met by Guatemalan police in riot gear and facing warnings from Washington that they should not attempt to cross into the U.S. illegally.
Photos captured on Monday show that the caravan, which began its journey on Friday in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, had reached Esquipulas, Guatemala, by the evening.
Their journey comes just months after a migrant caravan of asylum seekers from Central America arrived at the U.S. border in April, despite Trump's repeated demands that the group stay away.
On Tuesday, the U.S. leader found himself once again trying to deter migrants from arriving at the country's border, threatening to cut funding and aid to Honduras if the caravan "is not stopped and brought back to Honduras."
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 16, 2018
"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 tweeted out on Tuesday morning.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. gave $175 million in aid to Honduras in the fiscal year of 2017.
The Honduran government has yet to respond to Trump's Tuesday threat to cut funding.
However, others, including Mark Feierstein, who worked under the Obama administration as a special assistant to the president and senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs on the National Security Council, have hit out at the president's decision to threaten aid to the country.
Feierstein, who is now a senior adviser with the global business strategy firm Albright Stonebridge Group's Latin America practice, warned that if carried out, Trump's threat to cut funding and aid would only "make it harder for the government of Honduras to reduce crime and poverty," which would "thereby increase migration to the United States."
Calling the U.S. leader's statement "empty bluster," the former Obama aide said he would bet Trump's warning was "not the message that American diplomats have conveyed to the government of Honduras."
On Sunday evening, the U.S. Embassy in Honduras issued a statement saying it is "seriously concerned about the caravan of migrants traveling north from Honduras, with false promises of entering the United States by those who seek to exploit their compatriots."
Related: Meet the Americans opening their homes to families seeking asylum in the U.S.
Honduras and several other Central American countries have faced mounting pressure from the Trump administration to curb mass migration to the U.S.
In April, Mexico also faced intense pressure to stop the last migrant caravan, organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras, from making its way to the U.S. Mexico will likely face pressure once again to stop migrants from making progress toward the U.S. border.
Hondurans have sought to flee their country to seek asylum in the U.S. over fears of violence and political instability. The country has some of the highest crime and poverty rates in Latin America.
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Chantal Da Silva is Chief Correspondent at Newsweek, with a focus on immigration and human rights. She is a Canadian-British journalist whose work ... Read more
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