Over the course of several weeks, thousands of Central American migrants have gathered at the US-Mexican border of Tijuana after traveling through the region in caravans. Many of these immigrants have abandoned their corrupt mother countries in search of refuge, others plan to raise their growing families in a nation that guarantees security, freedom, and education to their offspring.

It all started with a group of about 4,000 immigrants from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, who were journeying towards Mexico. Initially, their goal was to request entry into the United States. This resulted in the arrival of 500 migrants to Tijuana. They marched toward the border to plead for the United States to speed the processing of their asylum requests. At this point, problems began spiraling out of control for the border-sharing nations. Since many Latinos were already sneaking across the border to get to states such as California and Texas, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would be shutting its borders down if the issue remained unresolved. He also recently called out Mexican President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for his failure to recognize that the issue is springing from Mexico itself.

Although President Trump is trying to prevent the country from facing any sort of corruption from outside forces, it appears as though his approach to this particular scenario is very impractical and inhumane. Rather than understanding that refugees are harmless human beings who seek safety and peace, his ignorant ideals lead him to believe that all migrants entering the United States are dangerous “drug dealers” and “rapists”. Moreover, there is absolutely no excuse for the use of tear gas, CS gas, and other chemical weaponry on innocent people. Why was it necessary for Trump to give thousands of active-duty troops the consent to do so? In what way have any of these migrants shown any signs of cruelty to the U.S. border troops? Most importantly, what did the children do to deserve such a deadly punishment? Other forms of brutality against migrants have become very evident throughout the past month. One U.S. border patrol agent was thankfully arrested after taking the lives of four female migrants. On the other hand, Mexican police helicopters continue to fly above caravans, shooting down any migrants that are in sight.

Since asylum claims in the United States have increased exponentially, more pressure has been added on the American immigration courts (who are dealing with an overwhelming 760,000 cases at the moment). Unfortunately, due to America’s increase in restrictions regarding immigration policy and border control, it appears that a vast majority of Latino refugees will be denied access into the country. However, Mexican authorities are very concerned with the issue and are currently waiting for a response from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in order to help find a solution. In the meantime, many migrants are actually considering settling in Mexico if they are unsuccessful in reaching the U.S.