WOLA has these 9 Questions and Answers about  the Central American “Caravan”:

A caravan of an estimated 7,000 migrants, including many families and women with children, originated in Central America and is making its way through Mexico towards the United States. Today, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that he will start cutting, or substantially reducing, aid to Central America. According to research and advocacy group the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), this would be a counterproductive reaction that would undermine efforts to address the root causes of migration, namely, violence, corruption, poverty, and lack of economic opportunity.

On Friday, October 19, the caravan arrived at the bridge connecting the Guatemala-Mexico border, where Mexican security forces had set up barricades. Efforts by Mexican authorities to stop the caravan led to allegations of mistreatment and excessive use of force, including the concerning use of tear gas against migrants by Mexican federal police. Eventually, the migrants were admitted in small groups, while others crossed into Mexico. Many of the migrants, who are mostly from Honduras, are currently being hosted in shelters, auditoriums, and other structures in order to be processed for asylum in Mexico; others have decided to continue to travel north.

It’s important to note that images of migrants traveling in large groups can feed misrepresentations of actual migration trends at the U.S-Mexico border: migration is actually at a near historic low, even though the number of families and children arriving in search of asylum has increased in recent months.   

WOLA draws on years of experience and research on migration and the U.S.-Mexico border to answer the following questions:

1. Why are people leaving?  And why are they leaving now?
2. Can Trump cut aid to Central America?
3. Why are people traveling as a caravan?
4. What happened to the migrant caravan that attracted so much vitriol from President Trump earlier this year?
5. President Trump has threatened to shut down the entire U.S.-Mexico border to forestall anyone from the migrant caravan turning themselves into U.S. authorities to seek asylum, or to cross the border.  What would happen if the U.S.-Mexico border is shut down?
6. What is Mexico’s policy towards the migrant caravan?
7. Will threats mitigate migration flows from Central America?
8. Why are Central American countries not stopping caravans?
9. What should the U.S. government do if members of the caravan reach the U.S.-Mexico border?