Are You Worried About the Migrant Caravan?

What’s the scariest thing that could show up on your door this evening? Is it a caravan of Central American migrants who are:

• Carrying smallpox.
• Carrying leprosy.
• Carrying tuberculosis.
• Invading.
• Paid off by Jewish liberal philanthropist George Soros.
• Directed by the “Soros-occupied State Department.”
• A national emergency.
• Made up of “criminals.”
• Made up of “unknown Middle Easterners.”
• Made up of “many gang members.”
• Open-firing on Mexican cops.

All the above are claims made against the caravan of Honduran migrants and asylum seekers trekking to the U.S. through Mexico. 

Because it may be difficult to separate fact from fiction (or not: smallpox was eradicated in the 1980s), and because the man accused of killing 11 people worshipping in a synagogue spread the Soros-conspiracy online, we present…

The facts:

• The migrants are (at least) two months away. (But the midterms are next week.) As Fox News’ Shepard Smith explained: “There is no invasion. No one is coming to get you. There is nothing at all to worry about.”

• Most of the migrants intend to seek asylum, not sneak into the U.S. illegally.
• As they’re not yet immigrants to the U.S., they’re not, despite Trump’s rhetoric, “illegal immigrants.”
• The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a screening process for migrants entering into the U.S. This counters the claim of Fox News’s Laura Ingraham, who argued that members of the caravan are  “a health issue too, because we don't know what people have coming in here. We have diseases in this country we haven't had for decades."
• Trump has admitted “there’s no proof of anything” regarding his assertion that "unknown Middle Easterners" are travelling in the caravan.
• There is no evidence the caravan is being led (or paid for) by anyone other than those in it.

• The military troops being sent to the border will provide logistical support to Border Patrol, including vehicles, tents, equipment, and medical support. They won’t be involved in apprehension.
• Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen also confirmed that “we do not have any intention right now to shoot at people." However, she continued “I also take my officers and agents, their own personal safety, extraordinarily seriously. They do have the ability, of course, to defend themselves."
• The caravan is made up of refugees fleeing domestic and gang violence in their home country.

What do you think?

Are you concerned about the migrant caravan? What issues worry you? Will the caravan influence your midterm vote? Is the hysteria surrounding the caravan all about getting people to the polls? Take action above, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: @AllSidesNow via Twitter)