The Caravan

The World Socialist Movement

"Sending active military forces to our southern border is not only a huge waste of taxpayer money, but an unnecessary course of action that will further terrorise and militarise our border communities," said Shaw Drake of the American Civil Liberties Union's border rights centre at El Paso, Texas.

"The migrant caravan is full of women and children fleeing violence, poverty and government repression," tweeted Democratic Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts. "Sending thousands of troops to turn them away as if they are foreign invaders reflects the profound paranoia, fear and hate fueling this administration's immigration policies."

Michelle Mittelstadt, director of communications of the Migration Policy Institute, said: "there is no crisis at the border".

"We believe that the US is capable of dealing with the caravan without such extraordinary measures, and that is well within the capacity of the government to determine among those arriving at the border who has a legitimate protection claim and who does not," she told Al Jazeera, adding that overall activity at the border is a "mere fraction" of what it was in the 1990s and early 2000s.

"In many cases we are talking about people who have no choice but to leave their homes, and people who will continue to keep trying to find a safe place to live, despite the policies of Mexico, the USA, or any other country that may be safer than theirs," Amnesty said in a statement. "The hardline border controls used by a series of US governments over the last 30 years have been shown to be ineffective at reducing migration and only condemn people to more precarious and dangerous routes that put human lives at risk and fuel smuggling network," the international rights organisation added.

The "caravan's" goal is to seek asylum at an official port of entry.  Migrants are entitled under both US and international law to apply for asylum.