Vice President Mike Pence defended President Donald Trump’s assertion that “unknown Middle Easterners” are embedded within a migrant caravan heading towards the U.S. from Mexico, in a Tuesday interview with The Washington Post.
.@costareports asks @VP Mike Pence about @realDonaldTrump’s claim that unknown Middle Easterners had infiltrated the migrant caravan heading to the U.S. border. “It’s inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent,” Pence said. pic.twitter.com/7CRmyggfHG
— Washington Post Live (@postlive) October 23, 2018
“It’s inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent in a crowd of more than 7,000 people advancing towards our border” Pence said. “In the last fiscal year we apprehended more than 10 terrorists or suspected terrorists at our Southern Border from countries … other than Mexico.”
Photo by John Moore/Getty Images
Pence continued that “the President of Honduras told me this was organized by leftist groups in Honduras and financed by Venezuela.” The vice president’s comments come after a Monday tweet from Trump on the ongoing caravan.
“In 2017 alone the U.S. apprehended on average 10 suspected terrorists a day attempting to enter the country illegally. And those are just the ones that we catch. It’s inconceivable that this caravan – which is being broadcast around the globe – hasn’t already been infiltrated by individuals with ties to extremism, Vice Presidential press secretary Alyssa Farah said in a statement.
Farah continued “this is not complicated: this is an affront to our sovereignty, an exploitation of our laws and generosity, and those who seek to normalize or sugar-coat this tactic do so risking national security and sovereignty.”
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. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2018
The caravan reportedly swelled to nearly 5,000 people as it entered Mexico via Guatemala. The majority of the caravan consists of Central Americans who wish to gain entry to the U.S. by claiming asylum upon arrival.