The caravan with thousands of Central Americans making their way toward the United States' southern border contains gang members and terrorists, President Donald Trump told reporters Monday.
The caravan is currently making its way through Mexico and heading north.
"Go into the middle and search. You're going to find MS-13, you're going to find Middle Eastern, you're going to find everything," Trump said when asked whether he believed the caravan included embedded terrorists. "Guess what? We are not allowing them in our country. We want safety."
Trump put the blame on the countries through which the migrants have passed, saying they aren't doing anything to help the U.S. despite receiving American aid.
"Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, they're paid a lot of money. Every year we give them foreign aide. And they did nothing for us. Nothing," Trump said.
"We give them tremendous amounts of money, you know what it is, you cover it all the time. Hundreds of millions of dollars. They, like a lot of others, do nothing for our country."
CNN and other media outlets noted that Trump offered no proof of his claims, but CBS News' Mark Knoller tweeted that Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump "absolutely" has evidence of "unknown Middle Easterners" in the caravan. "We have 10 individuals, suspected or known terrorists, that try to enter our country illegally every day."
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