Caravan migrants have heard a lefty judge's ruling to block President Trump's executive order halting asylum claims at the border, and sure enough, are taking it as a 'ready-set-go' opening gun. They're telling the press they're set to illegally enter the U.S. because the penalty for entering illegally is now off, thanks to the Ninth Circuit's lefty Judge Jon S. Tigar. It's just as I suspected would happen yesterday, because people know an incentive when they see one.

According to the Associated Press:

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Migrants camped in Tijuana after traveling in a caravan to reach the U.S were weighing their options Tuesday after a California court blocked President Donald Trump’s asylum ban for illegal border crossers.

...and, buried deep in the piece:

Walter Matute said he has been deported from the U.S. twice and fears jumping the border would end his ability to get asylum. But he believes others will now take a chance in light of the court ruling blocking Trump’s ban on asylum for illegal border crossers.

“Yes people are going to cross,” the 36-year-old Honduran said. “There are a lot of women and children. A lot are going to be up for it now.”

Sitting on a curb near the sports complex, a Honduran woman affirmed his assessment. The woman, who declined to give her name, said she was getting anxious and was considering crossing illegally to skip the long wait at the Mexican port of entry for asylum seekers.

So obviously, with the U.S. border being heavily fortified with concertina wire and additional personnel, there's potential for confrontation as large numbers of people decide to enter illegally. According to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who was in San Diego yesterday, there about 6,200 of them camped out in Tijuana and another couple thousand in Mexicali, lined up and expecting to file phony asylum claims to enter the U.S. and work awhile as their cases are adjudicated in the backlogged courts. Only 9% are likely to be able to substantiate their claims, she said. So now, with their hopes up and hopes likely to be dashed of easy entry to the U.S., there's likely to be confrontation.

Thanxalot, Judge.

Nielsen's statement, which can be heard here, does come out with a clear-headed understanding of what the migrant caravan is - mostly military-aged unemployed men looking for work with 500 criminals in their ranks that they know about - as well as what is at stake here, and a good emphatic warning that illegals are not going to be successful if they try to cross. “This is a border wall with row upon row of concertina wire,” Nielsen said. “Make no mistake, we are very serious. You will not get into our country illegally.”

Her statements did show resolve and resolution - and they're on-target. What's more, she echoed President Trump in criticizing the fact-free ruling of the leftist judge, which she was convinced would be overturned by higher courts. She also looks better, shedding her dowdy old-lady coat she wore at the Arizona badlands border, and putting on a tougher-looking Barbour hunting vest.

She's still working on the gravitas - she's well-spoken but comes off as a seminar professor reading her term paper (illegals are going to be far more persuaded by a border chief who looks like, say, him) but her message sent is nevertheless improved.

But it's still an imperfect picture, not exactly something that will scare illegals into stopping. The optics of her speech still showed very sparse concertina wire fencing behind her (I was expecting five layers, as President Trump tweeted here) and she had to field a question from a reporter about the non-existent concertina wire at the part of the fence that goes out into the sea.

So overall, one wonders how effective these warnings are going to be now that illegals are preparing to march in. Nielsen said in her speech that there are eight miles of border fencing, which shouldn't be that hard for caravan migrants who have already traveled more than 1,000 miles to get around. One can only hope that Nielsen means it about illegals not getting in, and has enough means to enforce those words. The news from the judge is, they're coming.