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 Post subject: Caravan conspiracies
PostPosted: 10/23/18 4:41 pm • # 1 
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Still stuck in his fantasy reality, the DiC finally admits he has "no proof of anything"! ~ :ey ~ Sooz

‘No Proof Of Anything’: Trump Unravels When Pressed On Migrant Conspiracies
By Matt Shuham / October 23, 2018 4:53 pm

President Donald Trump finally admitted Tuesday that he had “no proof” to support his blatant lies and conspiracy theories about the migrants and asylum-seekers traveling toward the U.S.-Mexico border.

The President also tried — and failed — to get Vice President Mike Pence to accuse Democrats of funding the caravan, and to say there were Islamic State members in the caravan.

Pence did say that, during a phone call earlier Tuesday, the vice president of Honduras had told him that the group “was organized by leftist organizations and financed by Venezuela.”

“What else did they say, Mike, about ISIS?” Trump attempted. “Did they say something?”

They hadn’t. Pence returned to talking about leftist groups.

Pressed earlier for proof for Democrats’ non-existent involvement with the caravan, Trump was similarly evasive.

“You’re going to find out. And we’re going to see. Maybe they made a bad mistake, too,” he said.

Watch below:

Quote:
President addresses lies on migrants and asylum-seekers traveling toward border: "There's no proof of anything." pic.twitter.com/PRkKJjQkBz

— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) October 23, 2018

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/no-proof-of-anything-trump-unravels-when-pressed-on-migrant-conspiracies


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 Post subject: Re: Caravan conspiracies
PostPosted: 10/23/18 4:44 pm • # 2 
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Seems Pence is subtly undermining Trump.


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 Post subject: Re: Caravan conspiracies
PostPosted: 10/23/18 6:18 pm • # 3 
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It's easy to automatically assume the DiC is lying whenever his lips are moving ~ and here are the facts proving his lies about the current caravan ~ :ey ~ some "live links" in original ~ Sooz

Trump has whipped up a frenzy on the migrant caravan. Here are the facts.
Politico / By Ted Hesson / 2 hrs ago

President Donald Trump’s remarks in recent days about a caravan of Central American migrants heading toward the United States have stirred up a political frenzy — in the process distorting reality and ignoring basic facts.

Such caravans are nothing new — a smaller one formed last spring, and similar caravans have been organized annually for the past two decades. There's no evidence that the caravan includes Middle Easterners, much less terrorists, as the president has suggested, and annual border crossings remain low by the standards of recent history.

Amid this blizzard of assertions, basic facts about the caravan and about illegal migration into the U.S. are being contradicted or obscured. Here are a few answers to some elementary questions:

1. Who organized or caused the caravan?

Bartolo Fuentes, an activist and former Honduran lawmaker, initially organized it. In an Oct. 4 Facebook post, he shared a graphic promoting a “Caminata del Migrante” (“Migrant March”). The graphic told migrants and protesters to gather on Oct. 12 at a bus station in San Pedro Sula, one of the most violent cities in the world. “We don’t leave because we want to, violence and poverty chases us out,” it said.

Trump has tweeted that the caravan is a result of “pathetic Immigration Laws” that Democrats refuse to change. But Trump-backed immigration bills that would toughen asylum standards and fund a border wall made no progress this year in the Senate or the House, despite both being controlled by Republicans. It's unclear whether the measures backed by the White House would discourage migration from poverty- and violence-ridden countries such as Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted an unverified video clip last week that showed a man distributing money to people with backpacks who appeared to be migrants. Gaetz suggested — citing no evidence — that billionaire philanthropist George Soros was behind the cash payout. Trump later tweeted the same video, but mentioned Democrats, not Soros.

2. Is this the biggest migratory caravan on record?

According to an estimate by the Los Angeles Times, the migrant caravan swelled to more than 7,000 people in recent days. Other estimates have placed it in the thousands, and the numbers appear to be in flux.

Caravans from Honduras have occurred since the late 1990s, but this appears to be the biggest, according to Andrew Selee, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. The effort — partly a practical strategy for migrants to travel safely and partly a public protest — gained little attention in the U.S. until this spring, when Trump drew attention to a group of more than 1,000 migrants who left Honduras en route to the U.S.

Mass migration in itself — even from Central America — is nothing new. Hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Nicaraguans fled north to the U.S. and Mexico in the 1980s as those nations experienced brutal civil wars.

3. Are border crossings at record levels?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this week that a “record number of migrants” have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border this year. That’s not true. Border Patrol arrested roughly 397,000 migrants in fiscal year 2018, a figure far lower than the arrest levels in the 1990s and early 2000s, when arrests frequently exceeded one million.

Arrests dropped to their lowest level in decades during Trump’s first year in office. During the past fiscal year they've increased, approximating levels during the Obama presidency. From fiscal 2009 to 2016, Border Patrol arrested a yearly average of roughly 413,000 people at the southwest border.

One statistic has reached historic levels: The number of family members arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border rose to roughly 16,658 in September, the most recorded in a single month since Border Patrol began compiling records of families in fiscal year 2012.

4. What’s the principal reason migrants are traveling to the U.S.?

Experts cite violence, poverty and family connections in the U.S. as the primary forces driving migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador– as well as the possibility they might be able to remain once they arrive.

5. Are there MS-13 members in the caravan? Are there Middle Easterners in the caravan?

President Trump has claimed there are “some very bad people” in the caravan, and late Tuesday afternoon a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security tweeted that the agency "can confirm that there are individuals within the caravan who are gang members or have significant criminal histories." Previously, DHS had declined to comment specifically on whether criminals were in the caravan. "Go into the middle of the caravans, take your cameras ... you're going to find MS-13," Trump told reporters Monday night. But DHS did not state that the criminals in question belonged to MS-13.

Similarly, Trump said people from the Middle East had joined the group, but he's presented no evidence to back it up. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday made a statistical argument, saying "it's inconceivable that there are not people of Middle Eastern descent in a crowd of more than 7,000 people." Muslims make up about one quarter of the world population, so he might be right. (Important caveat: Not all Middle Easterners are Muslims, and not all Muslims reside in the Middle East.)

A Homeland Security Department spokeswoman said the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in fiscal year 2018 arrested more than 17,000 convicted criminals and 3,000 “special interest aliens” — a broad term that includes many countries around the world, including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Somalia (DHS does not disclose the full list of countries).

6. Trump wants to cut aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador for allowing the caravan to happen. Why?

Trump has threatened to slash aid to the three countries for their failure to halt migrants heading north. The pressure on Honduras and Guatemala makes some sense — the migrants passed through those countries before heading to Mexico — but including El Salvador, the southernmost of the three, does not.

These countries of the so-called Northern Triangle are some of the poorest in the hemisphere and struggle to provide basic security and social services for citizens. To stem the flow of migrants, the Obama administration boosted aid to the Northern Triangle, but that’s been steadily dropping. The aid totaled $700 million in fiscal year 2017, but the White House has already proposed slashing that to $435 million in the coming year.

7. There was an earlier caravan last spring. What happened to the people in that caravan?

A migrant caravan that left Honduras in March attracted more than 1,000 people during a month-long march to the U.S. border. But not all those members approached the border together. The Associated Press reported in May that 100 Central Americans were seeking asylum — a fraction of the original group.

8. What will a caravan member have to demonstrate to be admitted to the U.S. as an asylum seeker?

A person who enters the U.S. without authorization and seeks asylum must prove he or she has “credible fear” of persecution in his or her home country. The test is the first step in an asylum claim and could allow a migrant to remain in the U.S. pending a court date.

9. How will the migrants be greeted at the border by the US government?

Trump has threatened to send the military to the border and shut it down before the migrants can enter. The president already ordered up to 4,000 National Guard troops to the border in the spring (roughly 2,100 are currently deployed), but there’s nothing they can do to discourage asylum seekers. In many cases, families surrender themselves at the border and claim asylum, which means more enforcement power won’t stop them.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/factcheck/trump-has-whipped-up-a-frenzy-on-the-migrant-caravan-here-are-the-facts/ar-BBOO0rC?li=BBnb7Kz


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 Post subject: Re: Caravan conspiracies
PostPosted: 10/23/18 7:06 pm • # 4 
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Here's more outing the DiC's lies ~ :ey ~ "live links" in original ~ Sooz

'There Is No Immigration Emergency': Conservative Writer Refutes Trump's 'Cynical Ploy' to Whip Up Bigotry Ahead of Midterms
His midterm strategy is simple: lie, lie, lie.
By Cody Fenwick / AlterNet / October 23, 2018, 12:14 PM GMT

Media outlets have followed President Donald Trump's lead in making the caravan of immigrants moving through Central America a major news story, despite the fact that it poses no real danger to the United States.

As conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot explained in a new piece Tuesday, the concerns about the caravan are part of a scheme to scare voters into voting for the GOP in the upcoming midterm elections.

"This is simply Trump’s cynical ploy to use racism and xenophobia as voter-turnout tools," said Boot. "And Republicans are happy to go along with the self-proclaimed 'nationalist.' The GOP, my former party, used to dog-whistle to racists. Now it’s a wolf whistle."

The fact is, there's little reason for Americans to be concerned about the caravan.

Boot explained:

Quote:
There is no immigration emergency. Apprehensions of migrants along the southwestern border peaked at 1.64 million people in 2000. In 2017, there were only 303,916 apprehensions – a 81.5 percent decline. More Mexican immigrants are leaving America than arriving. The reason Trump is having a cow is because, after declining for his first few months in office, apprehensions increased in 2018, although they still generally remain below 2016 levels. Trump hasn’t built his vaunted border wall, and he hasn’t gotten Mexico to pay for it. But simply because Trump hasn’t succeeded in carrying out his fanciful campaign promises doesn’t mean we face an “existential” threat – as Newt Gingrich puts it – from dark-skinned newcomers.

And of course, all the anxiety and warnings about the caravan seem to ignore the fact that there was another caravan in April, which likewise never brought any danger to the United States.

"Conveniently enough, Trump and his amen chorus at Fox 'News' never bother to recall their meltdown over a similar caravan of refugees in April," wrote Boot. "Did that caravan unleash marauding hordes to rape and pillage? Nope. Most of the migrants stopped well short of the U.S. border. Some stayed in Mexico; others returned home. The Border Patrol reported catching all of 11 people linked to the caravan trying to enter the U.S. illegally. Another 244 or so migrants presented themselves to U.S Border Patrol offices to ask for asylum – as is their legal right."

The new caravan is expected to reach a similar fate.

Boot noted that this tactic is not limited to Trump, nor is it limited to the caravan. Republicans running for election have used bizarre and thinly-veiled racist or hateful attacks against African-Americans and other groups.

It shows the dark depths the Republican Party has sunken to under Trump's leadership that these tactics have become so common.

"They should be ashamed of themselves – if, unlike their leader, they are capable of experiencing that emotion," wrote Boot.

https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/trump-caravan-ploy-immigration-emergency-central-america


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