Latin American migrants hope to cross the US border before the other caravans arrive

While President Donald Trump threatens to place asylum seekers in massive tent cities and seal the U.S.-Mexico border with thousands of soldiers, dozens of migrants from across the Americas — including Cuba, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico — are huddled on an international bridge connecting Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas in hopes of making it into the United States before a massive caravan of immigrants arrives.

The caravan of several thousand primarily Central American migrants making its way to the United States has become a target as midterm elections approach. On the Paso del Norte Bridge, also known as the Santa Fe Street Bridge, more than 100 men, women and children were gathered Thursday but the number asylum-seeking migrants is growing as more arrive each day.

In televised address on Thursday, Trump said he will sign an extensive executive order requiring asylum seekers to present themselves at a port of entry and house them in tent cities until their legal cases are completed.

“We’re not releasing them into our country any longer. They’ll wait,” Trump said. “We’re putting together massive cities of tents. We’re going to hold them right there.”

Speaking from the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Trump said the order was necessary to protect the United States from an “invasion.” He also said the more than 5,000 military troops that are assigned to “harden” the border will consider a rock thrown by a migrant “as a firearm.”