Mexico’s immigration authorities warned that a second migrant caravan that stormed into Mexico on Monday despite a massive police presence is armed with Molotov cocktails, other incendiary devices and firearms.
Breitbart News reported the alert by Mexico’s National Migration Institute followed an incident on Sunday in which migrants threw rocks at officials at the Guatemala-Mexico Border and tried to break through international barriers.
The Mexican immigration agency, citing reports that individuals in Guatemala were building Molotov cocktails, asked the Guatemalan government to intervene.
The Mexican officials said the violent actions were those of “criminals and not of a vulnerable migrant population.”
Breitbart noted the group in Guatemala is separate from the initial caravan that is now in Mexico about 1,000 miles from the United States border.
The northern caravan of an estimated 4,000 people rejected a request by Mexican officials to follow immigration law so they could receive temporary employment, state-funded healthcare and education. Breitbart reported, however, that 422 members requested assistance from Mexican authorities to return home.
Fox News, which has a crew with the northern caravan, reported morale appears to be eroding, with some members dropping out to return home.
El Salvador’s immigration agency, meanwhile, said a third caravan of about 500 Salvadorans crossed legally into Guatemala on Sunday.
Trump: ‘This is an invasion’
The Pentagon has announced it will send 5,200 active-duty troops to “harden” the U.S.-Mexico border. More than 2,000 National Guard troops already are at the border assisting U.S. Border Patrol agents.
On Monday, President Trump tweeted a message to the asylum seekers: “This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!”
Trump and Department of Homeland Security officials have warned of gang members in the caravan.
In an interview Sunday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen affirmed Trump is considering sealing the U.S.-Mexico border through an executive order, even to asylum seekers.
“This caravan is not getting in,” she told “Fox News Sunday.” “There’s a legal way to enter this country. Those who choose to enter illegally will be stopped.”
Women and children first
The second group of migrants, at the Guatemalan border, has been more unruly than the first that crossed, the Daily Mail of London reported.
Guatemala’s Interior Ministry said police officers were injured when the migrant group broke through border barriers on Guatemala’s side of the bridge.
Mexican agents were attacked with rocks, glass bottles and fireworks, according to Mexican authorities, who said some members of the caravan carried guns and firebombs.
Mexican Interior Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida accused members of the second caravan of placing the elderly, pregnant women and children at the front, putting them at risk of being crushed.
