The agreement in question concerns the Obama-era "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" executive order that delayed the deportation of illegal immigrants who arrived in the US as children, and it's been a bone of contention between Trump and the Democrats in recent months. The hundreds of people banding together to reach the US wouldn't technically be eligible under its terms, but Trump is apparently using the optics of this caravan to push through his point that foreigners are prone to abuse the US' liberal migration laws and that they must urgently be reformed.
Not only that, but the President wants to use this migrant crisis to remind Americans why their country needs better border security that he believes only a wall can provide, something that the Democrats are firmly opposed to and which is fast becoming a major issue ahead of the November midterm elections. Some of Trump's criticisms weren't just directed at the opposition, but towards the Mexican government as well, which he accused of passively allowing this caravan to travel through their country. The US' southern neighbor also officially entered its presidential campaign season earlier this week, and the populist leftist-nationalist frontrunner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will probably use Trump's attacks to bolster his credentials as the "anti-Trump" that Mexicans can depend on to confront what many consider to be the disrespectful northern bully.
Far from remaining the mostly domestic issue that Trump may have thought it would be when he tweeted about it, the migrant caravan in Mexico is fast becoming an international one because it also raises serious questions about the true state of affairs in the US' Central American allies like Honduras from where most of these people originate. That drug- and gang-infested country in particular is still recovering from extensive unrest sparked by the disputed reelection of its leader that critics allege was the result of fraud but to which the US nevertheless gave its stamp of approval. It's unclear whether the migrants are fleeing the political crisis or just want to move to the US for other reasons, but either way, Trump's tweets are inadvertently bringing attention to an issue that his country would rather ignore.
Andrew Korybko is joined by Fernando Martinez, Independent news analyst from the US, and Pedro de los Reyes, researcher of alternative media and social movements in Latin America.
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