Trump says he’s cutting aid over migrant caravan

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump renewed his promise Monday to cut aid to Central American countries that failed to stop the growing throng of Honduran migrants traveling in a caravan toward the United States. In a series of tweets, the president said that because Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador had failed to stop the caravan, the United States would “begin cutting off, or substantially reducing,” foreign aid to those countries. He called the situation a national emergency and said he had “alerted Border Patrol and Military.” Trump also said that the caravan included criminals and “unknown Middle Easterners,” but didn’t explain further who they might be.

On Sunday, the president tweeted that the migrants would be turned away at the U.S. border if they did not first apply for asylum in Mexico. The caravan of Central American migrants swelled to about 5,000 over the weekend, with most moving past Mexican border patrol, who did little to stop them. They plan to apply for legal asylum in the United States, as similar caravans of migrants have done in the past.