We had a hint last week that the migrant caravan at the Mexican border might not be entirely the group of peaceful asylum seekers we’ve been told about when an admitted MS-13 member was captured after crossing the border illegally. It’s easy enough for open border advocates to say, sure… but that’s just one guy. At the time I asked if it was really reasonable to expect us to believe he was the only one.

Turns out he wasn’t. The Department of Homeland Security has announced that another interesting character was traveling with the first surge of migrant caravan members and similarly crossed the border illegally. And this one is a convicted murderer. (Washington Times)

Homeland Security said Friday that a convicted murderer was among the members of the migrant caravan, and was caught trying to sneak into the U.S. late last week.

Until four months ago Miguel Angel Ramirez, 46, was in a Honduran prison serving time for murder, authorities said. On Saturday he was nabbed near the San Ysidro border crossing along with two other Honduran illegal immigrants, having just crossed without permission.

Mr. Ramirez told agents he’d traveled with the migrant caravan that has seen thousands of people from Honduras bust into Guatemala, then Mexico, and arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border plotting their entry.

DHS Press Secretary Tyler Q. Houlton released the following statement: “As DHS confirmed weeks ago, there are at least 600 known criminals in the caravan flow. The fact that Border Patrol arrested a murderer within the first caravan-related apprehensions at our southern border proves how real the threat of the caravan is to our national security and public safety. DHS will not tolerate illegal or forcible entry into our country.”

You might find yourself saying, okay… so it’s not one guy. It’s two. But that’s just the first two we’ve managed to nab. And the ones currently at the border near Tijuana represent a relatively small, advance force which managed to obtain rides. Many more are coming.

Isn’t this really just common sense? How could the caravan not be a magnet for gang members and others seeking to enter the country illegally? That’s particularly true when you consider that the members of the press, both domestic and international, are falling all over themselves to paint the caravan in a sympathetic light. This presents an ideal opportunity to try to blend in with the crowd and take advantage of all the confusion to make it quickly and easily to the border and slip across while agents are busy dealing with that many arrivals.

And the makeup of the caravan has clearly been misrepresented. This is not a group primarily made up of family units or unaccompanied women and children. Even one of MSNBC’s reporters was forced to admit that the majority are single men and they’re not all interested in applying for asylum. (Even among the ones with relatively clean records who might qualify.) If American media outlets stopped devoting so much energy to doing free public relations work for the caravan we might eventually start getting a bit closer to the truth.