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  • 2018-10-23 (xsd:date)
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  • Were 100 ISIS Terrorists Caught in Guatemala as a Central American Caravan Headed to the US? (en)
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  • In early October 2018, thousands of migrants set out from Honduras to make the journey north in hopes of fleeing the poverty and violence of their home country for a better life in the United States. While their journey was beset by physical obstacles, it was also accompanied in the U.S. by a swell of misinformation. On 18 October 2018 the extreme-right legal advocacy organization Judicial Watch published a article headlined 100 ISIS Terrorists Caught in Guatemala as Central American Caravan Heads to U.S., suggesting an alarming confluence of events: The Judicial Watch article conflated two separate news stories, with the effect of leaving some readers with the impression that people with links to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization were potentially traveling with a migrant caravan toward the southern U.S. border. On 11 October 2018, at the Conference for Prosperity and Security in Central America in Washington, D.C., Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales announced that his government had arrested and deported 100 people highly linked to terrorist groups, specifically ISIS. This statement was reported by the Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre in a report aggregated by Judicial Watch. One day later, on 12 October 2018, about 160 people formed a growing migrant caravan in Honduras with plans to cross through Guatemala and then Mexico to seek asylum in the United States. The caravan didn't cross the Guatemalan border until 15 October 2018, meaning the ISIS-linked individuals apprehended and deported by Guatemalan authorities were gone well before the caravan ever reached that country. President Donald Trump later tweeted that unknown Middle Easterners were among the migrants traveling north, but he offered no evidence for the claim: But as NBC News noted, there is no evidence that any Middle Eastern terrorists are hiding in the caravan: We reached out to Judicial Watch with questions about why their story linked two news items separated in time and space, whether the organization was aware of any evidence showing that anyone with terrorist ties was traveling with the caravan, and if so, why that evidence wasn't reported. The organization's president, Tom Fitton, responded only to assert that the Judicial Watch story was accurate and that he hoped Snopes.com refrains from smearing our reputation because you are have ideological concerns about the implications of our reporting. In 2015, Judicial Watch drew a FALSE rating from PolitiFact over their claim that ISIS had established a camp a few miles from Texas. Although migrant caravans from Central America occur with relative regularity, Republican politicians seized on the October 2018 incidence with consequential U.S. midterm elections approaching, blaming the event on their Democratic opponents and even philanthropist billionaire George Soros. President Trump threatened to cut off aid to Central American countries that failed to stop the caravan before it reached the U.S. border. As of 22 October the caravan had grown to roughly 7,000 people, including many women and children, and had reached Tapachula, a city at the southern tip of Mexico that serves as a known hub for migrants. Journalists traveling alongside it and caravan participants themselves have refuted having knowledge of any unknown Middle Easterners traveling among them. (en)
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