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Trump: US military will shut Mexico border to stop illegal immigration

President insists migrants heading to the border from Central America include ‘many criminals’ and some of them are carrying drugs

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Honduran migrants take part in a ‘caravan’ towards the US in Chiquimula, Guatemala on October 17, 2018. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump said he will mobilise the US military to close the border with Mexico and stop an “assault” on the nation by a caravan of migrants from Central America.

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Trump, who ran in 2016 promising to tighten US immigration laws end the inflow of people entering the country illegally, has called for cutting off foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador if they do not stop the migrants.

Trump at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa on October 9, 2018. Photo: Bloomberg
Trump at a rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa on October 9, 2018. Photo: Bloomberg

He claimed on Thursday that Democrats are backing the human movement to bolster their case for “open borders and existing weak laws”.

“I am watching the Democrat Party led (because they want Open Borders and existing weak laws) assault on our country by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, whose leaders are doing little to stop this large flow of people, INCLUDING MANY CRIMINALS, from entering Mexico to US” he said.

“In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught – and if unable to do so I will call up the US Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!” Trump said on Twitter.

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