VOCABULARY

ENGLISH –VIETNAMESE

1/ MIGRANTS FROM HONDURAS

 caravan of migrants (n): đoàn xe chở người di cư (di dân)
 the march (n): đoàn người di cư
 stuck in a border: mắc kẹt ở biên giới
 headed for (v): hướng về
 similar statements (n): những phát ngôn/ biểu tương tự
 reacting (v): phản ứng
 legal permission (n): sự cho phép hợp pháp
 refugee status (n): tình trạng tị nạn
 be processed: được xử lí
 are literally caught: bị bắt lại
 Honduras/ Guatemala/ Mexico
 El Salvador

2/ HOW AMERICAN SPEND ON HALLOWEEN

 bet (v): cược
 the National Retail Federation: Liên đoàn bán lẻ quốc gia
 planned spending: chi tiêu theo kế hoạch
 Costumes: trang phục
 Princesses and Super Heroes
 witches, vampires and zombies: phù thủy, ma cà rồng, xác sống
 Pirates: cướp biển
 our furry friends:
 pumpkins: bí ngô
 bumble bees:

VIETNAMESE - ENGLISH

1/ MIGRANTS FROM HONDURAS

 đổ về/ hướng về/ tiến về: Bound for/ head to/ move to
 Caravan of migrants : đoàn người di cư
 các quốc gia Trung Mỹ: Central America countries
 bổ sung nhân lực: boost human resources
 hành trình đường bộ: land trip
 hành trình di cư đầy rủi ro: risky trip of migration
 đi nhờ xe: hitchhike
 bám vào các đoàn tàu hỏa: cling to the trains
2/ HOW AMERICAN SPEND ON HALOWEEN
 chi tiêu kỷ lục cho : have a record of how much sb spend on
 hóa trang thành: disguise …as
 thương hiệu bán lẻ: retail brand
 loạt phim truyền hình viễn tưởng: television series of fiction
 gây sốt: be a sort of fever
RELATED STORIES

CARAVAN OF MORE THAN 1,000 MIGRANTS MOVES NORTH, TRIGGERING

OUTRAGE FROM TRUMP
By Joshua Partlow October 16
ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — A caravan of Honduran migrants bound for the United States
streamed across Guatemala’s southern border on Monday night and drew a rebuke Tuesday from
President Trump, who threatened to withdraw all aid to Honduras unless it somehow recalls its
citizens.

The migrant caravan included more than 1,000 people and is expected to continue to expand as it
moves north across Guatemala and Mexico. On Tuesday morning, after the group had crossed into
Guatemala, Trump wrote on Twitter that he had informed Honduran President Juan Orlando
Hernández that “if the large Caravan of people heading to the U.S. is not stopped and brought back
to Honduras, no more money or aid will be given to Honduras, effective immediately!”

The migrants — who say they are traveling in search of jobs, better lives for their families and an
escape from gang threats and violent communities — were blocked at the Honduras-Guatemala
border for several hours Monday by Guatemalan police in riot gear before being allowed to pass.
They made camp for the night at a Catholic school in the southern city of Esquipulas and
continued north Tuesday morning.

Trump has made such migrant caravans a symbol of all that is wrong with U.S. immigration
policies. Earlier this year, Trump’s criticism turned a migrant caravan into a spectacle, with day-
by-day media coverage of the journey. That episode caused a spat between the United States and
Mexico and was used to justify a deployment of National Guard troops to the border.

This time, Mexico said it intends to stop the caravan.

When the migrants arrive at Mexico’s southern border, “the migration personnel will review
compliance with the legal requirements, and those who do not comply, will not be allowed entry,”
the National Institute of Migration, the government’s migration agency, said in a statement
Tuesday.

Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman said in a statement Monday that
the current caravan “is what we see day-in and day-out at the border as a result of well-advertised
and well-known catch-and-release loopholes.”

“As we have said time and again, until Congress acts, we will continue to have de facto open
borders that guarantee future ‘caravans’ and record numbers of family units entering the country
illegally,” Waldman said.

By “catch-and-release,” the administration refers to the common practice by U.S. immigration

authorities of briefly detaining migrants and asylum seekers before releasing them with ankle
bracelets while their immigration cases are pending. From the last caravan, a few hundred people
applied for asylum in the United States, but it is unclear how many remain in the country or
whether any were granted asylum.

This time around, the migrant caravan appears to be even larger than before, with estimates as high
as 3,000 people, according to volunteers working with the group. Some migrants say they expect
to settle in Mexico, but most intend to reach the United States, with many hoping to apply for
asylum. Traveling in a large group offers additional safety for what is a dangerous journey through
Mexico; it also saves people thousands of dollars they might otherwise pay for a smuggler.

“I saw the caravan on the news,” said Maria Amparo Gutierrez Garcia, 24, who left behind her 7-
year-old daughter in Honduras to join the migrants with her husband. “In the same instant, I
decided to come. I didn’t want to miss this chance.”

After the standoff at the border, the migrants walked into Esquipulas and convened at a Catholic
school, where church volunteers handed out sandwiches and plates of pasta. Soon after their
arrival, at least three migrants, including two children, were loaded into ambulances, apparently
suffering from exhaustion or dehydration after hours of walking and waiting in the sun.

Joel Garcia, a 22-year-old construction worker from the Honduran coastal city of Tela, joined the
caravan after being deported from Mexico last year during a previous attempt to reach the United
States. He said gangs had killed members of his family and he could not earn enough to support
his diabetic mother. He slipped out of the house on Saturday morning wearing flip-flops for the
nearly 3,000-mile trip; someone later gave him a pair of socks.

“I left without telling my wife,” he said. “I didn’t want her to suffer.”

Garcia had teamed up with a new friend, Brian Sanchez, an 18-year-old high school graduate who
aspired to work in IT but could not find a job in Honduras. Sanchez called his mother on Sunday
to tell her he had joined the caravan.

“She said, ‘You’re crazy,’ ” he recalled. “But I want something better for me and my sister.”

These caravans are organized by migrant advocates and have taken place for the past several years
to raise awareness about violent and impoverished conditions in Central America and Mexico. But
usually they passed with little notice and in smaller numbers. During the previous caravan in
April, the numbers dwindled by the time the migrants reached the U.S. border.

There was no immediate response from the Honduran government about Trump’s threat to cut
funding. Honduras is expected to receive $66 million from the United States in fiscal 2019.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has reduced aid to Central America, and that has
drawn criticism from leaders in the region. Hernández told Reuters last month that reduced aid
“will obviously have repercussions,” including more immigration, because previous efforts were
intended to “attack the migration problem at its root.”
In a speech last week, Vice President Pence thanked the Honduran president for his immigration
efforts and said the United States was “grateful” Honduras had agreed to double its border police
force from 400 to 800 people by 2020.

As the caravans have become more widely known, they are attracting larger crowds. Among those
who entered Esquipulas on Monday were children and people with disabilities.
The towns they pass through in Central America and Mexico often give them warm receptions,
with volunteers from the communities giving them donated supplies.

“People are giving us food out of the kindness of their hearts,” Sanchez said. “Only your President
Donald Trump doesn’t like us.”

Kevin Sieff in Mexico City and Nick Miroff in Washington contributed to this report.
 THIS IS HOW MUCH THE AVERAGE AMERICAN SPENDS ON HALLOWEEN
Tamara Pearson
This year, spending on Halloween is expected to reach an average of $86.13 per person, up from
$82.93 last year, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual survey on Halloween.

The Halloween spending stats

Halloween was originally a festival that marked the end of harvest, and was a time of sharing with
the dead as they crossed over into the other world. It has been a way to recognize and play with
death, but over the last 50 to 60 years, U.S.-based candy companies promoted the idea that trick-
or-treating shouldn’t be rewarded with coins, nuts, fruit or toys, but with chocolates and other
candy.
The National Retail Federation survey talked to 7,013 consumers in September about their plans
for this year. It forecasts a total spend of $9.1 billion, with that spending including:

 $3.4 billion on costumes

 Of that, $440 million on pet costumes (2017 figure, Statista)
 $2.7 billion on candy
 $2.7 billion on decorations
 $410 million on greeting cards
 $300 million on haunted attractions (2016 figure)

In addition, the top 10 advertisers spent $29.2 million in 2014 on advertising for Halloween, with
Walmart topping the list, spending nearly $5 million.
Beyond the spending, 48 percent of adults plan to dress up, with witches, Batman and animal
costumes among the most popular choices. Superheroes were at the top of the list for children, and
hot dogs and pumpkins for pets. Some 71 percent plan to hand out candy, 49 percent will decorate
their home or yard, 46 percent will carve a pumpkin and 16 percent will dress pets in costumes.

Some of the most profitable categories, according to retailers, are home decor and accessories.
This could be because people spend time and money on outdoing their neighbors, one participant
in the 2016 survey of businesses said.

Further, the haunted house industry, according to a Statista analysis, has been “embraced by
Corporate America” with millions being spent on sponsorship deals with soft drink, fast food and
cell phone brands.

Other ways Halloween money could be spent

Here at The Alternative Daily, we crunched the numbers to work out how this Halloween money
could have been spent:

 The money spent on costumes could send 98,209 students to college for four years
each (average in-state college tuition is $34,620 for four years).
 The money spent on candy would provide 1.5 million homeless and extremely poor
people with three hot meals every day for a year (Feeding The Homeless says meals
cost $1.60 per person. That completely covers the total national homeless population
of 564,708 people, as well as an extra 1 million people living in extreme poverty.)
  The money spent on decorations could provide at least 4.5 million women with free
birth control pills for a year (the pill costs up to $600 per year).
 The money spent on greeting cards could reforest the U.S. (at an average of $100 per
acre to prepare the site, $70 per acre to replant or reseed, 2.4 million acres of land
could be reforested. The National Forest Foundation says at least 1 million acres of
land in the U.S. need reforestation).
 The money spent on haunted attractions could make condoms free for a year (450
million condoms are sold annually in the U.S., at average cost of $0.45 per condom
— for a total spend of $202 million).
So, added all up, the money being spent on Halloween paraphernalia could instead put some
people through college, feed the homeless, make contraception more affordable and reforest the
country.