On Oct. 12, a migrant caravan left from a bus station in San Pedro Sula, Honduras in an attempt to escape a life ridden with gang violence and poverty. The caravan consists mainly of people from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala (The Northern Triangle), with the majority being Hondurans. The original group of 160 people quickly grew, reaching what the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates to be at least 7,000 people. The size of the caravan has piqued the political interest and involvement of the United States, but this type of journey is not new. Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States has been a growing trend since the 1980s.
Most recently, in April of 2018, a migrant caravan led by the nonprofit organization Pueblo Sin Fronteras made a trek similar to that of the current migrant caravan. When the April caravan reached the U.S. southwestern border, 250 of the original 1,500 people remained. Around the time of the caravan’s arrival, Trump announced a zero-tolerance policy to discourage illegal immigration.
The discouragement of illegal immigration has been a common response to the Central American migrant caravans. In 2014, the Obama administration faced a large number of Central American migrants— largely unaccompanied minors— who sought to apply for asylum. In response, a media campaign called “Know the Facts” was launched in The Northern Triangle to warn of the dangers of migration and the small likelihood of being granted asylum. The American Immigration Council reported on the “Know the Facts” campaign created by the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of State and stated that “this knowledge did not deter [people] from making plans to migrate,” as, compared to the dangers of their daily lives, the dangers of migration were preferable to many.
In regard to the current migrant caravan, the desire to deter the efforts of the migrants is seen yet again as Trump has made unfounded claims that “many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border,” and warned the migrants to, “please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!” Trump’s reaction and the caravan itself are not isolated events; rather, they are additions to a growing history of Central American migration to the United States.