National Guard part of Trump’s Mexico border strategy -White House
WASHINGTON, (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s strategy for the U.S.-Mexico border includes mobilizing the National Guard, the White House said on Tuesday, after Trump had earlier spoken publicly to reporters about “guarding our border with the military” to stop illegal immigrants.
The White House statement was released after Trump met with Defense Secretary James Mattis, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other officials on border issues. It gave no details on whether or when Trump’s strategy might be implemented.
The National Guard, part of the U.S. military’s reserve forces, has been used in recent years for surveillance and intelligence on the border, but not direct law enforcement.
The president’s earlier remarks sharpened his recurring anti-immigration rhetoric. He said he wanted to deploy U.S. military forces until his long-promised border wall is built.
“Until we can have a wall and proper security we’re going to be guarding our border with the military,” Trump told reporters at the White House, lamenting what he called “horrible” U.S. laws that left the southern border poorly protected.
Trump railed against a “caravan” of Central American migrants traveling from the Mexico-Guatemala border in the last 10 days toward the United States, journeys that have occurred annually since 2010 in an effort to draw attention to the plight of people fleeing violence in their countries.
On Tuesday night, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said on Twitter that the caravan “dispersed gradually and at the decision of its participants.” Mexican officials say privately that they believe Trump has exaggerated the caravan’s importance to renew pressure on Mexico over the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
After 14 months in office, Trump still hammers regularly on an anti-immigration theme that helped to energize conservative Republican voters who helped him win the presidency in the 2016 election. Trump took a hard line on illegal immigration during the campaign and has also sought to curtail legal immigration.
His efforts have thus far failed to produce a comprehensive overhaul of America’s immigration laws or full funding for his border wall in the Republican-led Congress. No major legislation was expected before November’s congressional elections. CARACAS, (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said yesterday that 17 people had been detained for an attack on a rival presidential candidate’s campaign, but the leftist leader rejected accusations that pro-government thugs were to blame for the unrest ahead of the May vote.
The security boss of opposition candidate Henri Falcon sustained a “severe” injury to the head during an outing in the rough Caracas neighborhood of Catia on Monday. Falcon accused government supporters of attacking Teodoro Campos, who is also a lawmaker, with a brass knuckle. After being whisked to hospital, Campos was in stable condition, according to Falcon.
Maduro, whom Falcon has accused of turning to violence to compensate for his deep unpopularity in the midst of a brutal economic crisis, condemned the attack.
“I can say that there are 17 people arrested and that all who dare attack presidential candidate Henri Falcon’s campaign verbally or physically will be punished with jail,” Maduro said during a speech on state television. He did not provide any details on the arrests.