ANALYSIS/OPINION:

A bunch of migrants from Central America reportedly sent a list of demands to the White House, by way of the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, that went like this: Pay us $50,000, and we’ll go home. Don’t pay us, and we’ll stay. Oh, and in the meantime, speed up the asylum process so more of us can enter the United States.

Does this scenario end well — in anybody’s imaginations?

This isn’t just audacious. It’s outright extortion.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the migrants each want $50,000 — individually, not as a group. And there are two groups of caravaners calling for the blackmail fee; the first group, about 100 in numbers, was led by a guy named Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa, from Honduras.

“It may seem like a lot of money to you,” Ulloa said to the San Diego Union-Tribune. “But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras.”

Another group of migrants, about 50 in number, then demanded the White House admit 300 asylum seekers each day at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Diego — a figure that’s decidedly higher than the current 40 to 100 who are currently processed and admitted.

This group, rather than a spokesman, had a letter.

“In the meantime, [while we wait for processing], women and children who have fled our countries continue to suffer and the civil society of Tijuana continue to be forced to confront this humanitarian crisis, a refugee crisis caused in great part by decades of U.S. intervention in Central America,” the letter states, Fox News reported.

Hmm. These are interesting tactics on the part of the migrants.

But is blackmail at the border really the way to go?

The migrants who demanded speedier entry gave the United States 72 hours to answer. The migrants who demanded $50,000 for each and every member of their caravan — so they can use the money to go home and start a small business, dontcha know — didn’t put a deadline for receipt of their payments.

It’d be humorous — except for the fact these migrants are no doubt serious.

And this, case in point, is why we need tight border controls.

These migrants, with their lists of demands, with their extortion attempts, with their over-the-top entitlement mindsets, only underscore why America’s borders must be tightened, must be controlled, must be regulated and watched and surveilled.

In fact, President Donald Trump ought to send them a thank-you note. They’re really the best argument for a border wall that’s come in a while. And so timely, just as Congress and the White House are jumping back into the fray over border wall funding.

On that score, maybe these migrants have earned their $50,000 after all.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter, @ckchumley.

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