On Sunday, a new group of immigrants set off from El Salvador toward the US, in the wake of thousands of other immigrants from Central American nations who have taken similar journeys to try to escape from violence and poverty over the last few weeks.
A group consisting of over 300 immigrants from El Salvador left San Salvador, the country’s capital city, on Sunday. A bigger group, believed to contain up to as many as 3,500 primarily Honduran immigrants, has already left their country and are currently in southern Mexico, becoming a major issue in the congressional elections in the US. Another group is moving in Guatemala, which contained over 1,000 immigrants at one point but has since fragmented.
President Donald Trump and the Republican Party has seized on the issue of immigration as they attempt to maintain control of Congress ahead of next week’s midterm elections. On Fox News Sunday, Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said that the President was intent on using every authority he has to prevent the immigrants from illegally crossing the border into the US.
Trump has suggested completely closing the US border with Mexico, and the Defense Secretary, Jim Mattis, has authorized the use of troops and military resources. Dozens of the immigrants from El Salvador had arrived at the Guatemalan border by Sunday afternoon.
