A migrant woman rests roadside with her child while traveling with a caravan of thousands from Central America en route to the United States on Oct. 24.
Honduran migrants, part of a second wave of migrants heading to the U.S., hold Honduran flags as they continue their journey to the Mexican border with other Central American migrants, in Chiquimula, Guatemala, on Oct. 23.
Guatemalan security forces keep watch at the Agua Caliente border with Honduras as part of Guatemala's measures to prevent Honduran migrants from crossing its territory toward the Mexican border, in Agua Caliente, Guatemala, on Oct. 23.
A man holds a mask of Donald Trump during the Mexicans meet outside the United States Embassy to plan a welcoming and gather donations for the migrant caravan coming from Honduras on Oct. 23.
Honduran climb on a truck as they travel with other Central American migrants, part of a second wave of migrants heading to the U.S., toward the Mexican border on Oct. 23 in Chiquimula, Guatemala.
A Guatemalan woman shows her identification as the Guatemalan soldiers deployed check the identification of public transport users in Chiquimula, Guatemala, as they wait for Honduran migrants, on Oct. 22.
Honduran migrants head in a caravan to cross the Suchiate River, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, in makeshift rafts, in Ciudad Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 22. President Donald Trump on Monday called the migrant caravan heading toward the US-Mexico border a national emergency, saying he has alerted the US border patrol and military.
Aerial view of Honduran migrants onboard a truck as they take part in a caravan heading to the US, in the outskirts of Tapachula, on their way to Huixtla, Chiapas state, on Oct. 22.
Honduran migrants taking part in a caravan heading to the US, wait to cross the border from Ciudad Tecun Uman in Guatemala, to Ciudad Hidalgo, on Oct. 22.
Honduran migrants onboard a truck take part in a caravan heading to the US, in the outskirts of Tapachula, on their way to Huixtla, Chiapas state, on Oct. 22.
Honduran migrants taking part in a caravan heading to the U.S. are seen aboard a truck in Metapa on their way to Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico on Oct. 22.
Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the U.S. arrive in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas state, Mexico, in a makeshift raft, after crossing the Suchiate river, the natural border between Guatemala and Mexico on Oct. 22.
Honduran migrants hoping to reach the U.S. sleep in the southern Mexico city of Tapachula, Monday, Oct. 22, in a public plaza featuring a statue of Mexican national hero Miguel Hidalgo, a priest who launched Mexico's War of Independence in 1810. Keeping together for strength and safety in numbers, some huddled under a metal roof in the city's main plaza, while others lay exhausted in the open air, with only thin sheets of plastic to protect them from ground soggy from an intense evening shower.
Osman and Jela, a married couple from Honduras, embrace as a caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America rest while enroute to the United States border, in Tapachula, Mexico, Oct. 21.
Central American migrants fill the truck of a driver who offered them a free ride, as they arrive in Tapachula, Mexico, on Oct. 21. Despite Mexican efforts to stop them at the Guatemala-Mexico border, about 5,000 Central American migrants resumed their advance toward the U.S. border.
A Honduran migrant holds US and Honduran flags as he takes part in a caravan heading to the U.S. on the road linking Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on Oct. 21, 2018. Thousands of Honduran migrants resumed their march toward the United States on Sunday from the southern Mexican city of Ciudad Hidalgo, AFP journalists at the scene said.
A Honduran migrant extends his hand to a fellow man from a truck as they take part in a caravan heading to the U.S., on the road linking Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on Oct. 21, 2018.
A Honduran migrant boy carries a bag as he takes part in a caravan heading to the U.S. on the road linking Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on Oct. 21, 2018.
A Honduran migrant hangs from the back of a truck as he takes part in a caravan heading to the U.S., on the road linking Ciudad Hidalgo and Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on Oct. 21, 2018.
Immigrants cross the Mexico-Guatemala border in rafts on Oct. 20, 2018, in Ciudad Tecun Uman, Mexico. The caravan of thousands of Central Americans, mostly from Honduras, hopes to eventually reach the United States.
An immigrant jumps off a bridge to enter Mexico from the border with Guatemala as part of the immigrant caravan on Oct. 20, 2018, in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico. The caravan of thousands of Central Americans, mostly from Honduras, hopes to eventually reach the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to cancel the recent trade deal with Mexico and withhold aid to Central American countries if the caravan isn't stopped before reaching the U.S.
A Honduran migrant, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., looks on through the gate on the bridge that connects Mexico and Guatemala in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 20, 2018.
Members of the migrant caravan are rafted over the Suchiate River which forms the Guatemala-Mexico border on Oct. 20, 2018, in Ciudad Tecun Uman, Guatemala.
Honduran migrants taking part in a caravan heading to the U.S., rest in Ciudad Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 20, 2018. Mexican authorities on Saturday allowed dozens of women and children from the Honduran migrant caravan to pass into its territory, the country's ambassador to Guatemala said.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, left, and his Guatemalan Counterpart Jimmy Morales speak during a press conference after their meeting of almost three hours in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on Oct. 20. The leaders lamented the 'political goals' that are behind the migratory convoy that seeks to reach the United States in search of a better future, and presented a 'safe return' plan.
Honduran migrant children, Ian Enamorado, 9, Josen Enamorado, 6 and Jasabel Quintanilla, 3, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., wait with their parents to apply for asylum in Mexico at a checkpoint in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 20.
A Honduran migrant is comforted by a Mexican paramedic after her mother fainted while crossing the border between Guatemala and Mexico, in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, on Oct. 20. Mexican officials are refusing to yield to demands from the caravan of Central American migrants that they be allowed to enter the country en masse but announced they would hand out numbers to those waiting to cross and allow them to enter in small groups.
Mexican navy personnel hand out food to Central American migrants stuck in no man's land on the bridge over the Suchiate River that is the border between Guatemala and Mexico, near Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, on Oct. 20. After the entry into Mexico via the bridge was closed, the migrants moved about 30 feet back from the gate that separated them from Mexican police to establish a buffer zone.
Honduran migrants use a makeshift raft to cross the Suchiate River, natural border between Guatemala and Mexico, in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas state, Mexico, on Oct. 20. Thousands of migrants who forced their way through Guatemala's northwestern border and flooded onto a bridge leading to Mexico, where riot police battled them back, waited at the border in the hope of continuing their journey to the United States.
Honduran migrants help a man holding a child get down to the Suchiate River from the Guatemala-Mexico international border bridge, in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas state, Mexico, on Oct. 20.
A young Honduran migrant wearing an American flag t-shirt, taking part in a caravan heading to the US, takes a rest as they arrive at the border crossing point with Mexico, in Ciudad Tecun Uman, Guatemala, on Oct. 19.
Honduran former lawmaker Bartolo Fuentes, who helped to organize the caravan, speaks during a demonstration in front of the US embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on Oct. 19.
Aerial view of a Honduran migrant caravan heading to the US, on the Guatemala-Mexico international bridge in Ciudad Hidalgo, Chiapas state, Mexico, on Oct. 19.
A Honduran migrant, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., is seen after crossing the Suchiate river with the help of fellow migrants to avoid the border checkpoint in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Oct. 19.
Migrants bound for the U.S.-Mexico border wait on a bridge that stretches over the Suchiate River, connecting Guatemala and Mexico, in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Friday, Oct. 19.
A Honduran migrant, part of a caravan trying to reach the U.S., protects her child after fellow migrants stormed a border checkpoint, in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico on Oct. 19.
Honduran migrants heading to the United States, rest at a gymnasium of a Catholic church in Chiquimula, Guatemala, on Oct. 16.
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Democrats are struggling to respond to President Trump and his Republican allies, who are casting the caravan of thousands of migrants headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border as a failure of Democrats to help enact immigration policy in the GOP-controlled Congress.
Some Democrats said Trump is vulnerable to a counterattack on his core campaign issue given that his policies failed to reduce the number of unauthorized immigrants. Yet party leaders and Democratic candidates have largely been silent ahead of the midterm elections, refusing to engage with Trump.
The Democratic and Republican strategies reflect the path each party has charted with two weeks till Nov. 6. Republicans are hoping to retain their Senate majority and limit losses in the House by playing on fears of migrants pouring into the country to rally conservatives, a strategy that helped propel Trump to the presidency in 2016.
Democrats, deeply divided on immigration, are trying to maintain a laserlike focus on health care and the GOP threat to protections for people with preexisting medical conditions, envisioning that as the issue that will determine control of Congress.
On Monday, Trump launched a fresh attempt to deflect blame for the more than 5,000 migrants from Honduras who were making their way north through Mexico. The president and his top aides say the rising number of Central Americans attempting to enter the United States without authorization presents a winning campaign issue, by showing Trump is right to call for stronger border control.
Trump sought to fan public fears on Twitter, suggesting without evidence that the caravan contains gang members and terrorists from the Middle East.
“Every time you see a Caravan, or people illegally coming, or attempting to come, into our Country illegally, think of and blame the Democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic Immigration Laws!” Trump tweeted. “Remember the Midterms!”
Republicans trying to preserve the party’s 51-49 Senate majority said they were thrilled to see Trump lead the charge on immigration, an issue they say could be a powerful motivator in the conservative states dominating this year’s map.
“Democratic opposition to strong immigration security has been a very effective issue for us in Senate races this year,” said Steven Law, head of the Senate Leadership Fund, a conservative super PAC. “I don’t see how the spectacle of a massive horde trying to bust our borders on the brink of a national election remotely helps Democrats.”
Law’s group has recently run ads casting Democratic incumbents in states Trump won as soft on immigration, a tactic GOP candidates have also deployed. Echoing Trump, the Republican in the pivotal Tennessee Senate race issued a statement Monday on the “illegal alien mob” headed to the border.
“It’s not surprising he’s silent as thousands of people try to make their way into our country illegally,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn said of her Democratic opponent, former governor Phil Bredesen. Bredesen spokeswoman Alyssa Hansen accused Blackburn of “disgusting fearmongering” and said he was focused on “common-sense solutions.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) issued a statement over the weekend saying Trump was “desperate to change the subject from health care to immigration because he knows that health care is the number one issue Americans care about.”
Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster who has regularly conducted surveys in competitive Senate races, said his party’s candidates ought to stay focused on health care and not let Republicans dictate the terms of the midterm debate in the final weeks.
“If they’re moving to [immigration], it suggests to me that their post-Kavanaugh effort is running out of steam,” he said, referring to the recent polarizing confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
White House aides have emphasized that they believe Trump’s hard-line immigration message, while potent with his conservative base, also carries significant crossover appeal to independents and some moderate Democrats. They cite polls showing that immigration is among the most important issues for voters in both parties.
One senior official pointed to Democrats who have called for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and who have supported “sanctuary cities” — which do not share information with or use local resources to help some federal immigration enforcement efforts — as being too liberal for the electorate at large.
But some Democratic strategists and former congressional aides said the party was missing a chance to pin the rising border numbers on Trump and hold him accountable for falsehoods he has promoted about the issue.
The president, in his tweets Monday, said the caravan from Honduras was a national emergency, and he told USA Today that he would send troops to the border: “As many as necessary.” He also tweeted that aid would be cut to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, from which a record number of families have traveled to the United States.
However, officials from the Pentagon and State Department said they had received no new directives from the president. Early this year, an immigration plan backed by the White House drew the fewest votes in the Senate of four competing proposals — with just 39 senators voting in favor and 11 Republicans joining Democrats in opposing it.
Leon Fresco, an immigration attorney and former aide to Schumer, said Democrats are concerned that showing too much empathy for the migrants could turn off more conservative voters.
“People who are swing voters are not comfortable with politicians defending people in the caravan. It’s a very difficult, nuanced argument to try to get all those things across,” Fresco said. “But if Democrats switch and say the caravan is a direct result of Trump’s immigration policy, that would shut [Republicans] down completely.”
Yet one Democratic strategist noted Monday that the party does not have a consensus position on immigration enforcement to succinctly counter Trump’s “build a wall” mantra. The strategist pointed to a Pelosi interview last week as an example of the far from potent message: The leader said the party’s immigration platform if it wins the House would focus on providing legal status to younger immigrants, known as “Dreamers,” who entered the country illegally as children.
“How is that responsive to the moment we’re in?” said the strategist, who works on immigration issues and spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak frankly about party strategy. “The notion we shouldn’t be talking about the central issue this president has talked about for three years is crazy.”
The Senate battlefield is a combination of ruby-red states with many rural voters who support Trump and his hard-line immigration platform. But there are also four states up for grabs with sizable Hispanic populations: Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Texas, where Trump campaigned Monday for Sen. Ted Cruz (R).
In those states, Republicans risk alienating moderate and Latino voters by fully embracing Trump’s controversial platform.
“That’s long been pretty much a canard and a fear tactic,” said retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), speaking on CNN about Trump’s claim about Middle Easterners in the caravan. The race for Flake’s seat is one of the most competitive Senate contests.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his allies have seized on liberal calls to abolish ICE, seeking to link them to Democrats running in red states. This has prompted some Democrats to run ads reassuring voters that they do not endorse that approach.
“I support ICE, funding President Trump’s border wall,” Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) said in a recent campaign commercial.
In the House, a reliance on immigration could cut both ways for the GOP. Democrats are favored to win the majority because of anger against the president in moderate, suburban districts.
At the same time, Republicans are trying to prevent a Democratic incursion into more conservative districts, where running on Trump’s immigration agenda could boost their appeal.
Republicans are also trying to retain key districts with large Hispanic populations. One is in New Mexico, across the state’s southern half, where Democrat Xochitl Torres Small criticized the White House’s proposal to send military personnel to the border.
“It is so frustrating for me to see people in Washington try to turn this into a political point and try to polarize people and try to oversimplify something that is complicated and real on the ground here,” Torres Small said Sunday night.
sean.sullivan@washpost.com
david.nakamura@washpost.com
David Weigel in Las Cruces, N.M., contributed to this report.