Over the last two weeks, a large group of Central American migrants and refugees began to travel through Central America to approach the southern border of the United States. A large percentage of the refugees are currently fleeing Honduras, where violence and poor economic prospects were cited as reasons that they felt the need to flee the country. Over the last month in Honduras, many began organizing on Facebook and other social media to flee the country. Organizers proposed a caravan, so that their fellow migrants could move safely in numbers. The caravan soon reached Mexico, where Mexican immigration officials have tried to convince them to stay and register for asylum and legal citizenship in Mexico. President Trump has been extremely critical of the caravan, attacking them many times in public and on Twitter. He has repeatedly called the caravan an “invasion force.” On October 23 at a rally, President Trump accused Democrats of paying migrants to begin the caravan. As of the time of writing, 5,000 United States soldiers have been deployed to the border in order to assist ICE officials with securing the border in preparation for the caravan. However, those critical of the move have claimed that the 46-day troop deployment is meaningless, as the most liberal projections show the caravan making it to the border in 45 days.
On October 19, 2018, the first of a string of suspicious packages was discovered at the New York residence of liberal billionaire George Soros. On Tuesday, October 20, a package was discovered by the Secret Service after it was mailed to the residence of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Hours after the finding, the Secret Service found another suspicious package addressed to Barack Obama. The next morning, the New York City offices of CNN were evacuated due to a similar package in its mailroom; another bomb was found addressed to former CIA Director, John Brennan. Former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and current House Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz also received a package. It was addressed to former Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., using her office as a return address. House Representative Maxine Waters was the recipient of two packages. Another package was found at the office of liberal actor Robert De Niro. In the 48 hours after the first packages were found, “#MAGABomber” became the #1 trend on Twitter, with many pointing out that every single target was a Democrat that had been criticized and attacked by President Trump. On October 23, the bomber was apprehended by local police. After they were arrested, a picture of their van went viral online. The van was plastered with pro-Trump stickers, some of them depicting crosshairs over people who would eventually become their targets. According to law enforcement sources, the perpetrator had a list of 100 names of politicians and members of the media. The perpetrator is currently being held for prosecution in Florida, where they live.
On October 21, 2018, The New York Times reported on an internal memo from the Department of Health and Human Services that would attempt to redefine the legal definition of sex under Title IX. “The department argued in its memo that key government agencies needed to adopt an explicit and uniform definition of gender as determined ‘on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.’”(Erica L. Green, Katie Benner, Robert Pear, The New York Times). The memo proposed a definition of sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with. Any dispute about one’s sex would be clarified using genetic testing. This new definition of sex would essentially legally erase the identities of 1.4 million transgender Americans. In the wake of the publication of the story, there was near immediate uproar from the LGBT community. The National Center for Transgender Equality as well as the Human Rights Campaign both condemned the memo unequivocally. While federal guidelines have not been changed, they appear to be on the docket for the Trump administration.
On that same day, a man who will not be named entered a Kroger grocery store in Jeffersontown, Kentucky, and opened fire, killing 69-year-old Maurice Stallard. He then walked into the parking lot and shot and killed 67-year-old Vickie Jones. Both Stallard and Jones were African-American. A bystander drew his weapon and confronted the shooter in the parking lot. The bystander’s son, Steve Zinninger, was also in the parking lot. He reportedly heard the shooter tell his father “please don’t shoot and I won’t shoot you, whites don’t kill whites.” The shooter was reportedly seen trying to gain access to a predominantly African-American church prior to the Kroger shooting.
On October 28, 2018, Jair Bolsonaro made it through the second round of Brazil’s presidential elections to become the President of Brazil. Bolsonaro has been considered a far-right candidate. Bolsonaro served in the military during Brazil’s former dictatorship and advocated for torture. In 2013, he said he would “rather have a son who is an addict than gay,” and that he is “proud to be homophobic.” In 2014, he told a fellow female lawmaker “I would not rape you because you are not worthy of it.” He is also incredibly critical of Brazil’s conservation efforts, claiming there are too many native reservations in the Amazon. “Our Amazon is like a child with chickenpox, every dot you see is an indigenous reservation […] and the Brazilian people applaud [demarcation of indigenous land]. Look at these people, no political strategy!” Bolsonaro also claimed that he would give his political opponents the choice of extermination or exile. There is even more controversy surrounding Bolsonaro. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, colloquially known as “Lula,” was imprisoned in April and began serving a 12-year sentence for corruption. Despite this, the members of Lula’s party, the Workers’ Party, actually nominated him as their candidate at the beginning of the race in August. Many have claimed that if Lula actually faced Bolsonaro in an election directly, he would have defeated the far-right candidate. President Bolsonaro has assuaged complaints, saying his government would be a “defender of the Constitution, democracy, and liberty.”
On October 30, 2018, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that her fourth term as chancellor would be her last, and she would not be seeking re-election as chancellor or as chairperson of her party, the Christian Democrats. Her term is set to expire in 2021, and she also said that she would not be running for chancellor if snap elections are called before 2021. In regional German elections this month, the Christian Democrats did not fair as well as they had hoped in two regions, Hesse and Bavaria. Merkel was quoted as saying that those election results were a “clear signal that things can’t go on as they are.”
On October 30, 2018, Axios published an exclusive interview with President Donald Trump claiming that he planned to sign an executive order to abolish birthright citizenship in America. In his interview, Trump said, “It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t.” Birthright citizenship is a right guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment, but it has come under fire in recent years as a tool for undocumented immigrants to have “anchor babies,” making it harder for them to be deported. President Trump has railed against “anchor babies” and birthright citizenship in recent years; this appears to be another fulfillment of his campaign promises. Many in the media have claimed that it would be legally impossible for Trump to overturn a constitutional amendment with an executive order, and that any order would be overturned by American courts. However, some have claimed that the Fourteenth Amendment actually does not cover birthright citizenship, and an executive order would be suitable in eliminating it.
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