AFP, Washington :
The US has threatened to arrest around 100 Central American migrants if they try to sneak in from the US-Mexico border where they have gathered, prompting President Donald Trump to order troop reinforcements on the frontier.
Two busloads of migrants arrived Tuesday in the border city of Mexicali-which sits opposite Calexico, California-and paused for a rest stop before continuing on to Tijuana.
They are part of a caravan of more than 1,000 people who set out from Mexico’s southern border on March 25.
Media coverage of the caravan triggered a flurry of furious tweets from Trump, who ordered thousands of National Guard troops to the border and called on Mexico to stop the migrants.
As the issue exploded into a diplomatic row, organizers of the caravan quietly broke it up.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a stark warning Wednesday to the first 120 who arrived, including some 50 minors.
“If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said.
Nielsen said those making false immigration claims or helping others to do so would also be prosecuted.
Around 600 migrants are still traveling more or less together by hopping
trains and taking buses.
The first two buses will be followed by three more, said organizer Irineo Mujica of the migrant rights group People Without Borders. Around 200 migrants will seek asylum in the United States, fleeing brutal gang violence or political persecution in their home countries, he said.
The US has threatened to arrest around 100 Central American migrants if they try to sneak in from the US-Mexico border where they have gathered, prompting President Donald Trump to order troop reinforcements on the frontier.
Two busloads of migrants arrived Tuesday in the border city of Mexicali-which sits opposite Calexico, California-and paused for a rest stop before continuing on to Tijuana.
They are part of a caravan of more than 1,000 people who set out from Mexico’s southern border on March 25.
Media coverage of the caravan triggered a flurry of furious tweets from Trump, who ordered thousands of National Guard troops to the border and called on Mexico to stop the migrants.
As the issue exploded into a diplomatic row, organizers of the caravan quietly broke it up.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a stark warning Wednesday to the first 120 who arrived, including some 50 minors.
“If you enter our country illegally, you have broken the law and will be referred for prosecution,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said.
Nielsen said those making false immigration claims or helping others to do so would also be prosecuted.
Around 600 migrants are still traveling more or less together by hopping
trains and taking buses.
The first two buses will be followed by three more, said organizer Irineo Mujica of the migrant rights group People Without Borders. Around 200 migrants will seek asylum in the United States, fleeing brutal gang violence or political persecution in their home countries, he said.
