Trump sends troops to
Deployment twice as big as force fighting Isis in Syria
The Pentagon says it is sending 5200 troops to the United States’ southwest border in an extraordinary military operation ordered just a week before midterm elections in which President Donald Trump has put a sharp focus on Central American migrants moving north in slowmoving caravans still hundreds of kilometres from the US.
The number of troops being deployed is more than double the 2000 in Syria fighting Isis (Islamic State).
Trump, eager to keep voters focused on illegal immigration in the lead-up to the elections, stepped up his dire warnings about the caravans, tweeting: “This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!”
Any migrants who complete the long trek to the southern US border already face major hurdles — both physical and bureaucratic — to being allowed into the US.
In an interview yesterday, Trump said the US would build “tent cities” for asylum seekers.
“We’re going to put tents up all over the place,” he told Fox News. “They’re going to be very nice and they’re going to wait and if they don’t get asylum, they get out.”
Under current protocol, migrants who clear an initial screening are often released until their cases are decided in immigration court, which can take several years.
Trump denied his focus on the caravan was to help Republicans in next week’s midterms, saying: “This has nothing to do with elections.”
The Pentagon’s “Operation Faithful Patriot” was described by the commander of US Northern Command as an effort to help Customs and Border Protection “harden the southern border” by stiffening defences at and near legal entry points. Advanced helicopters would allow border protection agents to swoop on migrants trying to cross illegally, Air Force General Terrence O’Shaughnessy said.
Troops planned to bring heavy concertina wiring to unspool across open spaces between ports.
“We will not allow a large group to enter the US in an unlawful and unsafe manner,” Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said.
O’Shaughnessy said 800 troops
were already on their way to southern Texas and their numbers would top 5200 by week’s end. Some of the troops would be armed. He said troops, who would join the more than 2000 National Guardsmen Trump has already deployed to the border, would focus on Texas, followed by Arizona and then California.
It remained unclear yesterday why the administration was choosing to send active-duty troops given they will be limited to performing the same support functions the Guard already is doing.
The number of people in the first migrant caravan headed toward the US has dwindled to about 4000 from about 7000 last week, although a second one was gaining steam and marked by violence.
About 600 migrants in the second group tried to cross a bridge from Guatemala to Mexico en masse yesterday.
The riverbank standoff with Mexico police followed a more violent confrontation on Monday when the migrants used sticks and rocks against officers. One migrant was killed on Monday by a head wound, but the cause was unclear.
The first group passed through the spot via the river — wading or on rafts — and was advancing through southern Mexico. That group appeared to begin as a collection of about 160 who decided to band together in Honduras for protection against the gangs who prey on migrants travelling alone and snowballed as the group moved north. They are mostly from Honduras, where it started, as well as El Salvador and Guatemala.
Another, smaller caravan earlier this year dwindled greatly as it passed through Mexico, with only about 200 making it to the California border.
Migrants are entitled under both US and international law to apply for asylum. But there already is a bottleneck of would-be asylum seekers waiting at some US border crossings to make their claims, some waiting as long as five weeks.