Who's Organizing the Massive Caravan Aiming for the US Border as the Election Looms

Thousands of Central Americans broke through Mexico's border with Guatemala this weekend, pushing past Mexican border police in their quest to reach the United States. The migrant caravan has increased to more than 5,000 people with some estimates putting the number near 7,000.

President Trump tweeted Sunday that "full efforts" were being made to stop them from entering the US, threatening to use military forces to stop a breach at the US border.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Mexico's president Sunday, saying the caravan is supported by leaders with political motivations.

On Monday, President Trump announced the US will retaliate by "cutting off, or substantially reducing" aid to three Central American nations involved in the migrant caravans that target the US-Mexico border.

Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador received a combined $500 million in US aid in fiscal year 2017. But that's about to change.

Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2018

Trump blames the caravan on an open borders policy he says the Democrats support. He tweeted the caravan is a "disgrace to the Democratic Party."

The timing of this new caravan just days before the midterm elections has President Trump and others questioning who's helping to organize it.

"A lot of money has been passing to people to come up and try and get to the border by Election Day, because they think that's a negative for us," Trump said at a recent campaign rally in Montana. "They wanted that caravan and there are those that say that caravan didn't just happen. It didn't just happen. A lot of reasons that caravan, 4,000 people."

Sadly, it looks like Mexico's Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States. Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in. I have alerted Border Patrol and Military that this is a National Emergy. Must change laws!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2018

Fox News media personality Laura Ingraham tweeted: "Who is funding the migrant "caravan"? Each migrant's passage can cost as much as $7K each. Per capita income Honduras is $2.3 K."

As tensions have escalated over this huge caravan, Mexican authorities arrested Irineo Mujica, the organizer of previous caravans. Mujica is the director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People Without Borders), and the group says he was arrested without cause.

A New York Times so-called "fact check" claims the group is not behind the latest mass attempt to flood the US border, simply because the group denies involvement. But this report in a Spanish-language news site reveals one of the men representing the caravan is Denis Omar Contreras, who is a member of Pueblo Sin Fronteras. 

Pueblo Sin Fronteras has leftist goals, stating in a press release earlier in 2018, "We seek to become one collective, supporting each other shoulder to shoulder and demonstrating that by uniting, we can abolish borders."

It's still unclear who else may be involved in funding the caravan efforts. Conservatives are blaming leftists like George Soros. Progressives say it's just desperate Central Americans seeking refuge from danger and poverty in their home countries.