Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said that there is intelligence indicating that there is a limited number of people in the caravan making its way through Mexico that are not part of the region, and come from Middle East, Fox News informed.
“We absolutely see people from the Middle East, from southeast Asia, from other parts of the world — not just from Central America,” Nielsen said in a wide-ranging interview.
The caravan began in Honduras. Hundreds of migrants have started arriving in Mexico City, 700 miles from the U.S. border.
President Trump, who gave a promise to prevent the caravan from entering the United States, tweeted that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners” are among the migrants.
Democrats, as well as some Republicans, have accused the Trump administration of fear mongering.
“Now, in 2018, they’re telling you the existential threat to America is a bunch of poor refugees a thousand miles away,” former President Barack Obama said at a campaign rally on Friday. “They’re even taking our brave troops away from their families for a political stunt at the border. And our men and women deserve better than that.”
Speaking of the non-Central American migrants, Nielsen told Fox News, “we don’t always know exactly who they are.”
“What I can tell you is we stopped 3,000 people last year at the southwest border who had patterns of travel similar to a terrorist,” Nielsen said. “We call them special interest aliens.”
Meanwhile, Nielsen said the Department of Homeland Security is seeing real concern among the nations directly affected by the caravans.
“We are hearing from our partners in the region — in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, in Mexico — that they have some concern with respect to the timing and the particular organization of these caravans,” she said. “They’re not organic if you will. They’re definitely organized or financed.”
Nielsen said DHS “very seriously” is attempting to determine the origins of these caravans.
“Mass migrations aren’t good for anybody and not safe for the migrants,” she said. “They unfortunately allow criminal elements to prey on vulnerable populations…those who might otherwise have a legitimate claim.”
Latin America specialist Joseph Humire, who was on the ground with Guatemalan intelligence 10 days ago, said some caravans operate in a military fashion.
“What I saw was a high level of logistical organization,” said Humire, the executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society.
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