100 ISIS Members Caught in Guatemala as Caravan Heads Through Country: Report

Judicial Watch says the terrorists were caught in the country before the caravan left

Advocacy group Judicial Watch said that around 100 ISIS terrorists were apprehended in Guatemala as a Central American caravan that includes Guatemalan and Honduran migrants, makes its way north to the United States border.

The caravan of several thousand people made its way from Honduras to Guatemala on Oct. 15 before stopping near the border.

The Associated Press reported on Oct. 19 that the caravan turned back when it got to the Mexico-Guatemala border. Migrants in the mass caravan started chanting that “one way or another, we will pass.” The migrants also chanted: ”We are not smugglers, we are immigrants.” They stopped about two blocks from the crossing before they went back and said they would wait another hour or so, AP reported.

Judicial Watch noted on Oct. 18 that Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales “confirmed it during a recent security conference attended by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well as the presidents of Honduras and El Salvador and other Latin American dignitaries. Morales said that his administration has captured ‘close to 100 persons completely involved with terrorists, with ISIS and we have not only detained them within our territory, but they have been deported to their country of origin.’”

Judicial Watch did not say that ISIS members were among the people traveling north with the caravan.

Some of the terrorists were Syrians who were caught with false documents, Guatemala’s head of intelligence said, according to the report.

Honduran migrants in a caravan heading to the United States, walk in direction of the border with Mexico as they leave Guatemala City on Oct. 18, 2018. Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images

According to Judicial Watch, in years past a terrorist “could have easily slipped in considering the minors, coined Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), were not properly vetted and some turned out to be violent gangbangers who went on to commit heinous crimes in their adopted land of opportunity.”

It added that MS-13 gang members were energized by the large numbers of UACs coming through the border under the Obama administration. “At the time more than 60,000 UACs–many with criminal histories–had stormed into the U.S. in a matter of months. Tens of thousands more eventually made it north,” it said.

President Donald Trump has threatened to close down the U.S.-Mexico border if authorities in Mexico and Central American countries fail to stop the caravan, which has about 3,000 to 4,000 people.

The President’s Response

“I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught—and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!,” Trump tweeted this week. He added, “The assault on our country at our Southern Border, including the Criminal elements and DRUGS pouring in, is far more important to me, as President, than Trade or the USMCA.”

According to media reports, Mexico has dispatched extra police to its southern border with Guatemala. Mexican officials stated that Hondurans had already arrived there, CBS reported.

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