Trump claims migrant caravan is larger than reported: 'I"m pretty good at estimating crowd size'

The Trump administration is prepared to send up to 15,000 troops to prevent the migrant caravan from entering the country

President Donald Trump claims the number of Central American immigrants marching towards the United States is "larger" than reported as he looks to increase his hardline immigration rhetoric ahead of crucial midterm elections.

"You have caravans coming up that look a lot larger than it's reported, actually," Mr Trump said in a recent interview with ABC News, with the Congressional elections less than a week away.

The migrant caravan is reportedly made up of 7,000 immigrants mainly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Some analysts have estimated the caravan size to be a lot higher —14,000. Most of these immigrants, including children, are fleeing economic turmoil, persecution and violence in their home countries. The Pentagon believes that "only a small percentage" of immigrants from the caravan will actually reach the border.

"I mean, I'm pretty good at estimating crowd size," Mr Trump added, boasting about his ability to approximate. "And I will tell you, they look a lot bigger than people would think.” Mr Trump did not give a ballpark figure of how large he believes the migrant caravan to be.

The caravan is still about 900 miles away from the nearest US border crossing. Mr Trump, however, is primed to send approximately 15,000 armed US troops to the southern border to block them from entering the country.

"We have to have a wall of people—very highly trained people, terrific dedicated patriots," Trump added. "That's what they are."

The president described the asylum seekers marching towards the US-Mexico border to look like intruders.

“They can't invade our country," Trump said in the interview. "You look at that, it almost looks like an invasion. It really does look like an invasion. When you look at some of them, when you look at some of the people within the caravan, yeah, I think it could be considered an invasion of our country.

He argued letting them enter the country would be detrimental to US economy. "We can't have it," Mr Trump added. "We can't have it from a cost standpoint. It's not fair to our citizens."

Mr Trump also accused immigrants in the caravan to be "dangerous." Previously, the president claimed the caravan are harbouring "criminals" from gangs like MS-13 and "unknown Middle Easterners." His accusation is in stark contrast from Department of Defence intelligence reports. The agency does not anticipate any terrorist infiltration from the caravan.

On Monday, there were reports of violent clashes when the caravan crossed into Mexico from Guatemala. The violent clash initially broke out when a caravan tried to push through a gate from the Guatemalan side of the border. The caravan then fought with Mexican border officers. One man from the caravan died from a rubber bullet wound to the head and dozens of immigrants were injured.

In response to the clashes, Mexico deployed hundreds of police officers, boats and helicopters to their southern border to enforce their immigration laws.

"Mexican government does not condone or promote illegal immigration," Gerónimo Gutiérrez, the Mexican ambassador to the US, told Fox News.