Members of the Central American "caravan" will soon be in a community near you.

Most members of the caravan will enter the U.S. legally by claiming refugee status.  If they are from non-contiguous countries they will not be turned away.  The ones who would obviously be turned back (former deportees, MS-13 members, documented criminals or terrorists) will cross the unattended border in remote areas.  Congressional candidate Raj Bhakta in October 2006 illustrated how easy it is to cross illegally.  He sat atop an elephant in the Rio Grande for 90 minutes undisturbed while being serenaded by a Mariachi band.  The border has not been significantly reinforced since then.

Who are these caravan members?  The majority are young men of dubious character.  What kind of man leaves his country to seek asylum while leaving his mother, sisters, and sweetheart behind?  The Deep State media will portray them as children.  By U.S. standards, you are a child until age 26.  Those who do not fit this description can claim childhood status anyway.  Sympathetic bureaucrats can overlook a minor point of a decade or two in age.  A Swedish dentist discovered that 80% of migrant "children" entering Sweden were actually adults.  He was promptly fired.

Many caravan members are ardent patriots, judging by the number of flags from Honduras and Guatemala being waved.  Their supporters demonstrated their feelings toward the U.S. by burning an American flag.

It is important not to exaggerate the terrorist threat posed by this caravan.  It is also important not to minimize it.  After all, how many terrorists were involved in the 9/11 attack?  The president has claimed, "Criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in."  MSN's Eileen Sullivan believes that Middle Eastern terrorists on the Mexican border have "not proven to be a significant problem over the years."  Prior to 9/11, planes flying into skyscrapers were not a significant problem.  Julia Ainsley and Daniella Silva at NBC News call the Middle Easterners in the caravan a myth.  They support this by referring to a "former senior intelligence official who continues to be briefed on current intelligence."  He told them, "[T]here is no evidence that any Middle Eastern terrorists are hiding in the caravan." 

The Washington Post has reported that the president "sought to fan public fears on Twitter, suggesting without evidence that the "'caravan' contains gang members and terrorists from the Middle East."  Yet a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security reported that there are some "gang members" and people with "significant criminal histories" in the caravan.  Department spokesperson Tyler Houlton said on Twitter that the "caravan" includes citizens not only of Central American countries, but also of the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and "elsewhere."

The Gateway Pundit reports that a Univision correspondent found Bangladeshis in the caravan in Guatemala.  According to a Judicial Watch reporter in Guatemala, migrants from Haiti, Congo, Sri Lanka, Angola, Cameroon, and Bangladesh joined the "caravan."  The reporter's source was Guatemalan intelligence.  Investigative reporter Sara Carter claims she "bumped into a number of young MS-13 gang members" in Guatemala.

What kinds of diseases do they carry?  Legal aliens must undergo a thorough medical exam in their home countries.  Certain communicable diseases make an alien inadmissible.  These caravans may give emergency room physicians an excellent opportunity to familiarize themselves with some really exciting tropical diseases.

The president has stated, "Sadly, it looks like Mexico's Police and Military are unable to stop the Caravan heading to the Southern Border of the United States."  The president is wrong on this one.  The Mexican government is perfectly capable of stopping this invasion.  In fact, it could not occur without the Mexican government's assistance.  If this caravan is successful, we can expect many more.  In fact, a second caravan is being organized in anticipation of the first's success.  There is even a third reportedly being organized in El Salvador. 

It is not a government's responsibility to keep its citizen from leaving.  We have seen this in East Germany and North Korea.  If someone chooses to leave his home, he has a right to do so.  If he wants to enter a neighbor's home, he must be invited.  If he chooses to enter the home through a window in the dark of night, he is committing a crime.

There is a legal way to prevent a large majority from entering the U.S.  The president can send the military to guard the unattended border, forcing everyone to go through a port of entry.  He can instruct the Department of Homeland Security to make thorough inspections.

Businesses will suffer, and American citizens will be inconvenienced.  As the caravan sits on the other side of the border, consuming food and generating trash and human waste, and committing crimes, sympathy for them will diminish.  Businesses and the all important drug cartels will pressure the Mexican government to solve the problem.

John Dietrich is a freelance writer and the author of The Morgenthau Plan: Soviet Influence on American Postwar Policy (Algora Publishing).  He has a Master of Arts degree in international relations from St. Mary's University.  He is retired from the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.