Donald Trump threatens caravan migrants saying troops will open fire if they 'throw rocks'

Last month, a large group of migrants departed the Honduran city of San Pedro de Sula on their effort to enter the US. The group grew to more than 7,000 as they traveled through Guatemala into Mexico.

The numbers of the group have since dwindled to approximately 4,000 as they reached the Oaxacan city of Juchitán this week. On Thursday, President Donald Trump threatened to shoot them if they tried throwing stones in an effort to enter the US.

Besides the large caravan of migrants traveling to the US, there’s a smaller one that has crossed into Mexico about 250 miles behind. At the White House, this week President Donald Trump revealed his plan for the military troops he’d deployed to the US’ southwestern border.

He shared that he hoped they wouldn’t need to fire upon any migrants attempting to enter the country through Mexico. However, he threatened that if they threw any from across the border “we will consider that a firearm.”

For more on this story go to our Twitter account @amomama_usa. The president stated:

“They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back. I say, consider it a rifle.”

Trump plans on announcing a new immigration policy which would be aimed at restricting entry for asylum seekers at the southwest border. He revealed that in the meantime, there were plans to construction “massive cities of tents” to house migrants.

The migrants who had pending asylum claims would be kept in the camps “for a long time if necessary.” Ahead of the midterms, Trump also shared that he intended to end the “catch and release” practice of paroling refugees with credible asylum claims into the population.

He said, “We’re gonna catch, we’re not gonna release.” The US president also claimed that only “3 percent” of asylum seekers returned for court hearings on their claims.

However, according to the Justice Department figures, the actual number is between 60 and 75 percent. Trump shared that he would use an executive order to attain this.

The president described the asylum-seekers coming into the US as “an invasion” and also called them violent and an imminent threat to the country. He stated that the migrants were tough people whom he didn’t want as well as the women in the country.

In response to Trump’s plans, a dozen migrants have filed a class-action lawsuit against Trump, the Department of Homeland Security and others. The migrants, who are traveling by foot from Honduras to the US to seek asylum, claimed that the president was in violation of their due process under the Fifth Amendment.