Facing the procession of thousands of migrants, Trump tries to galvanize voters

Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump has seized the progress of a procession of thousands of migrants marching to the United States to place in the middle of the campaign crucial mid-term elections the hot topic of immigration and galvanize his base, taking the Democrats into default.

"It's an assault on our country, an assault," hammered Donald Trump in front of enthusiastic supporters Monday night in Texas, state border with Mexico, resuming with enthusiasm the topic of immigration that had been in the heart of his campaign victorious presidential election in 2016.

The images of thousands of Honduran migrants advancing grouped across Guatemala and Mexico have been looping since last week on US screens.

A coincidence of the calendar that "could not be better" for Republicans, says Muzaffar Chishti, lawyer and director of the institute on migration policies at the University of Law in New York.

In exactly two weeks, November 6, the Americans are called to vote to renew the Congress, controlled by the Republicans. Democrats have good chances to take over the House of Representatives but the way is more complicated for them to seize the Senate.

And with many extremely tight elections, which will be played on the edge of the razor, everything can tilt the outcome of the election.

"As we speak, the Democratic Party is encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws and violate our borders and overwhelm our country," the US president blamed unjustifiably Monday night.

Talking about the terrorist threat, Donald Trump says that people from the Middle East have crept into this "caravan", as well as members of the ultra-violent Salvadoran gang MS-13.

An argument resumed Tuesday by his vice president, Mike Pence, who said "inconceivable that there are no people from the Middle East in this crowd."

Pence also said Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez had told him that the procession of migrants was "organized by leftist groups in Honduras, funded by Venezuela and sent north to challenge our sovereignty."

Exhausted after already ten days of walking, some 7,000 mostly Honduran migrants, including women and young children, were resting Tuesday in southern Mexico, about 1,800 kilometers from the nearest US border post.

- Strengthen the mobilization -

The American president has implied for several days that it is the opposition who planned this "caravan", suggesting that some illegal immigrants could vote illegally on November 6th. But Republican strategists themselves point out that the party in power could not dream of better timing for their election campaign.

"Given the level of division in American politics, any sudden change (...) in the image of this situation, can change the balance," said Manuel Orozco, the international organization Inter-American Dialogue.

Forgotten now indignation, even in the ranks of Republicans, caused by the separation of families of migrants ordered by the Trump administration this summer.

Clandestine immigration has been a top concern for Republican voters for weeks, but at the bottom for Democratic voters, who are much more focused on health.

The case of migrants is timely to "strengthen" the mobilization of the Republican base, said Muzaffar Chishti. "It remains to be seen if this will change the opinion of the democratic or independent voters".

Apparently aware of the danger, the Democrats seem to be hesitant about the strategy to follow. If they adopt a line as hard as that of the president, they may rob a part of their base. But if they do nothing, they lend themselves to Republican criticism.

For the moment, the majority seems determined to avoid the subject, trying at all costs to keep the attention on health.

"Trump and Republicans arouse fear and lie to get votes," the Democratic party accused on Tuesday. "In the face of Republican attacks, Democrats are concerned about the protection of the health system."

A crying sign of the Democratic malaise, the leader of the group of elected representatives of the Hispanic Chamber of Deputies, Michelle Lujan Grisham, who represents in Washington the border state of New Mexico, had, Tuesday at midday, dedicated his three tweets of the day to be outraged by a measure aimed at transgender people envisioned by the Trump administration.

For a week exactly, not a word on the other hand on Honduran migrants.

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