Fox News hosts have claimed that the largest-ever migrant caravan is gathering in Mexico and moving to enter the U.S.
On Monday during the Fox and Friends show, host Brian Kilmeade took particular issue with the comments from one migrant who demanded U.S. President Joe Biden keep his “promise” to the migrants.
“He promised the Haitian community he would help them,” one migrant said. “He will recall Title 42. He will help us [have] real asylum. But now we need him to keep his promise.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Title 42 order was first issued in March 2020 under former President Donald Trump.
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Officials at the time said the use of Title 42—named for a 1944 public health law to prevent communicable disease—was to limit the spread of COVID-19, but some criticized it as an excuse to keep migrants out of the U.S.
Since then, authorities have expelled migrants attempting to enter the U.S. more than 1.7 million times.
Biden kept Title 42 in place, despite pledging to roll back Trump’s most hard-line immigration policies.
The migrant caravan is made up of Haitians, Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans and even citizens of India, Bangladesh and several African countries, according to a Guardian report.
Reuters said that at least 6,000 people left the Mexican city of Tapachula on Monday with the goal of reaching the U.S. These numbers, while unconfirmed, may swell to as many as 15,000 according to Fox News.
The warning of further mass migrations as the year goes on will prove to be a hot topic ahead of the November midterm elections as Biden has been repeatedly criticized for his handling of the southern border.
“Keep [Biden’s] promise to who?” Kilmeade said as he reflected on the migrants comments.
“He is an American president. For him to keep his promise? His promise is to this country, to the American people not illegal immigrants trying to cross here because they assume it is time for them to come, it is not.
“We owe the world nothing, first and foremost we have to guard our borders and find a legal immigration system.
“This is because we actually need people in the work force, we need some of the first round draft picks to stay, instead of just being schooled here and go back.”
An organizer of the caravan and director of the non-profit Center for Human Dignification, Luis Villagran, commented on the number of migrants in the caravan, according to the Guardian report.
“This is the largest mass human migration I have seen in at least the past 10 years,” he said.
The timing of the mass movements coincides with the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week.
A large number of migrants in the caravan reportedly come from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua, three countries whose authoritarian rulers Joe Biden has refused to invite to the summit.
Villagran commented on this and said:” These are countries collapsing from poverty and violence.
“We strongly urge those who attend the summit, to look at what is happening and what could happen even more often in Mexico, if something is not done soon.”
Newsweek has contacted Fox News, the The National Immigration Law Center and the American Immigration Council for comment.
