The Trump administration is exposing what sits behind the migrant caravans moving north through Mexico, and the answer is not the spontaneous humanitarian movement Americans have been sold for years.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau says the caravans are organized through social media and became a major business for criminal enterprises under the prior administration.
His warning is direct: the organizers did not disappear when President Trump secured the border. They are waiting for Washington to weaken again.
Landau laid out the operation in his own words:
That distinction is important. The migrants may be desperate, but the people who organize and profit from mass movement are not doing charity work.
Breitbart News reports that Landau described migrants as pawns who can be subjected to degrading and dangerous conditions along the route. He said the caravan business had become lucrative for criminal organizations before President Trump returned to office.
The administration’s answer has been to work with Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico to stop large groups before they ever approach the United States border.
That cooperation is producing visible results. Landau credited checkpoints and coordinated enforcement for halting mass illegal movement closer to its source.
The latest group, calling itself “Fe y Esperanza #2,” left Tapachula, Chiapas, on October 20 but reportedly traveled fewer than 90 miles in eight days while dealing with bad weather, internal fights and the reality that the old open-border incentives are gone.
The most revealing evidence came from migrants speaking for themselves. Some told reporter Julio Rosas that they hoped Democrats would win the midterms so the United States would begin moving away from President Trump’s immigration policies.
Watch what they said: