03/11/2018 4:43 AM AEDT | Updated 03/11/2018 10:21 AM AEDT
White House Amps Up Fearmongering: Now It Says There's 'A Daily Caravan'
With the one, actual migrant caravan 900 miles from the U.S., a White House spokeswoman made the latest pitch to Fox News.
By Andy McDonald
A day after President Donald Trump warned that migrants in a U.S.-bound caravan risk being shot if they throw rocks, a White House spokeswoman claimed on Fox News that there's "a daily caravan" entering the country.
White House director of strategic communications Mercedes Schlapp appeared on "Fox & Friends" Friday to drive home the president's anti-immigrant message in the days before the midterm elections.
"What we're seeing right now is you're having this influx of illegal aliens," Schlapp said. "You're talking about 1,000 to 2,000 illegal aliens crossing our border daily. We're talking about a daily caravan coming into America."
"There has been abuse in our asylum system… This president, as he stated from day one, will be tough on this issue of immigration." -@mercedesschlapppic.twitter.com/avuERyY5KM
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) November 2, 2018
Reporters asked Trump on Thursday if he could imagine the U.S. military firing on unarmed people traveling in the migrant caravan, a group of over 7,000 people who are currently an estimated 900 miles away.
"I hope not," Trump said. "I hope not, but it's the military."
Trump has turned the caravan into a campaign issue ahead of the midterms, running one ad that compares the migrants to a notorious cop killer. In reality, the caravan is mostly made up of Central American asylum-seekers, including many children.
Despite the administration's rhetoric about undocumented immigrants flowing into the U.S. at an alarming rate, border crossings have actually been steadily declining over the past decade.
Andy McDonald Writer, HuffPost
MORE: White House Fox News 2018 elections migrant caravan Mercedes Schlapp