Reportedly President Donald Trump went to the Mexican border to deliver a message to would be illegal immigrants: the United States has no room left to take them. Meanwhile Trump sees his campaign against a "crisis" on the border as key to his 2020 reelection bid, and his trip to Calexico in California was meant to keep that message in the headlines.
Meanwhile the numbers of migrants and asylum seekers fleeing violence in Central America have risen sharply, although there are enormous political divides on whether this constitutes the "national emergency" that Trump has declared. Furthermore at a meeting with border patrol agents and other officials in Calexico, he said "it's overwhelming our immigration system and we can't let that happen."
Moreover around 200 protesters, accompanied by a giant inflatable balloon depicting Trump as a baby, were waiting for the president in Mexicali, the town on the Mexican side of the frontier. Apparently waving US and Mexican flags, the protesters carried signs with messages such as "Stop separating families" and "If you build the wall, his generation will tear it down”.
