The caravan of migrants that Trump warned 'had better be stopped' has already begun entering the US
- Despite President Donald Trump's vow that a migrant caravan "better be stopped" before it reached the US, eight migrants have already set foot on US soil.
- The migrants are part of a 200-strong group that traveled through Mexico in April, intending to seek asylum at the US border.
- US Customs and Border Protection has so far allowed four children, three women, and one young man to apply for asylum, though it's unclear if they'll win their cases.
- The Trump administration suggested many of the migrants' claims of "credible fear" were fraudulent.
The first group of migrants in the "caravan" that traveled through Mexico in April has already set foot on American soil and applied for asylum, despite President Donald Trump's repeated demands that they be barred from entering the country at all.
Just eight people were permitted to enter on Monday evening. The group included four children, three of their mothers, and one 18-year-old man, The New York Times reported.
Roughly 200 migrants who also intend to seek asylum have been stalled for more than a day at a makeshift tent encampment at the US-Mexico border in Tijuana, BuzzFeed News reported.
Those migrants have vowed to wait for US Customs and Border Protection to let them through the San Ysidro port of entry and process their asylum claims. But the agency has held most of them off temporarily, arguing that the border crossing had reached capacity.
"As in the past when we've had to limit the number of people we can bring in for processing at a given time, we expect that this will be a temporary situation," CBP said, according to the Associated Press.
But one organizer told CNN on Tuesday that the caravan will stay there until "every last one is admitted into the United States."
The caravan is an annual procession organized by the activist group Pueblo Sin Frontera - People without Borders. The roughly 200 migrants currently waiting at the US-Mexico border are all that remains of the original 1,000-member caravan that set out from Tapachula, Mexico, on March 25.
'An attack on the sovereignty of this nation'
"The migrant 'caravan' that is openly defying our border shows how weak & ineffective U.S. immigration laws are," Trump tweeted Monday.
The Trump administration has also suggested that many of the migrants' claims are fraudulent. The acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Thomas Homan, told "Fox & Friends" on Tuesday that the caravan represented an "attack on the sovereignty of this nation."
"Look, do I think some of these people have a credible fear case? Do some of these folks - are they escaping fear and persecution? Yes, some are. But I also know that some aren't," he said. "Many are taking advantage of a system with loopholes in it."
He added that if the migrants truly did fear returning to their home countries, they would have sought asylum in Mexico, which some did.
Not all of the caravan members had intended to seek US asylum, and many broke away from the group before reaching the final destination. Mexico offered many of the migrants temporary travel visas that allowed them time to apply for legal immigration status in Mexico, rather than journeying on to the US.
But the 18-year-old man who was allowed to enter on Monday told BuzzFeed earlier that day he had already been preparing for what he was going to tell the US immigration officers.
"Attorneys have told me I have a strong case and that there is a good chance I'll win," he said. "I'm determined to fight my case."