President Trump warned Honduras on Tuesday that his administration will cease all aid to the country unless it stops a large caravan of migrants making its way to the United States border.
“The United States has strongly informed the President of Honduras that if the large Caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!” Trump announced on Twitter.
The group of Honduran migrants – estimated at about 2,000 people – arrived at the Guatemalan border on Monday on their trek to the United States and was initially turned back by about 100 police officers, the Associated Press reported.
The migrants, carrying backpacks and bottles of water, eventually pushed past the Guatemalan officers.
Immigration officials in Mexico told the migrants that they would have to meet requirements for entry or would be turned back.
In a statement, US Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman said the group is “what we see day-in and day-out at the border as a result of well-advertised and well-known catch-and-release loopholes.”
The migrants said they were fleeing violence and poverty in Honduras.
Keilin Umana, who is two months pregnant, said she and her unborn child were threatened with death.
“We are not criminals – we are migrants,” the 21-year-old nurse told the AP, adding that she had been walking for four days.
In April, a large group of migrants from countries in Central America also headed to the US to seek asylum.
But many of them split off from the group during the dangerous trip, leaving a few hundred to apply for asylum at the US border.