Trump wants military at border
U.S. leader seeks to put troops along boundary with Mexico until wall is built
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants to use the military to secure the U.S.-Mexico border until his promised border wall is built.
Speaking at a lunch with Baltic leaders, Trump said he’d already discussed the idea with Defence Secretary Jim Mattis.
“We are going to be guarding our border with the military,” Trump said, calling the measure a “big step.”
Trump has been deeply frustrated about the lack of progress building what was the signature promise of his campaign: a “big, beautiful wall” along the Mexican border. He’s previously suggested using the Pentagon’s budget to pay for building the wall, arguing it is a national security priority, despite strict rules that prohibit spending that’s not authorized by Congress.
The Department of Homeland Security, Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on how such a plan might work.
Trump’s announcement came a day after administration officials said they’re crafting a new legislative package aimed at closing immigration “loopholes.” Trump has called on Republican lawmakers to immediately pass a border bill using the “Nuclear Option if necessary” to muscle it through.
“The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our ‘Weak Laws’ Border, had better be stopped before it gets there. Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!” Trump tweeted at daybreak Tuesday. The president also tweeted about “caravans” on Sunday and Monday.
The president has been tweeting about immigration and the border for the last few days, declaring protections for so-called Dreamer immigrants “dead,” accusing Democrats of allowing “open borders,
drugs and crime” and warning Mexico to halt the passage of “caravans” of immigrants or risk U.S. abandonment of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Trump has been seething since realizing the major spending bill he signed last month barely funds the
“big, beautiful” border wall he has promised supporters. The US$1.3 trillion funding package included $1.6 billion in border wall spending, but much of that money can be used only to repair existing segments, not to build new sections.
Among the new measures the administration is pursuing: ending special safeguards that prevent the immediate deportation of children arrested at the border and travelling alone. Under current law, unaccompanied children from countries that don’t border the U.S. are turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services and undergo often lengthy deportation proceedings before an immigration judge instead of being deported.
The administration is also pushing Congress to terminate a 1997 court settlement that requires the government to release children from custody
to parents, adult relatives or other caretakers as their court cases proceed. Officials complain that many children never show up at their hearings.
The proposals appear the same as those included on an immigration wish list the White House released in October but failed to gain traction during negotiations over the border wall.
Trump’s tweets calling on Mexico to halt “caravans” followed a Fox & Friends report Sunday that featured the leader of the union representing border patrol agents predicting that those in the caravan would create havoc and chaos in the U.S. as they wait for immigration reform.
About 1,100 migrants, many from Honduras, have been marching along roadsides and train tracks in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.