Trump wants military to guard border until his wall is built

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump called on Tuesday for using the military to guard the border with Mexico until his promised wall is built, highlighting his growing frustration as nationalist allies criticize him for failing to get Congress to fully fund construction.

“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” Trump said during a lunchtime meeting with leaders of three Baltic nations.

“We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing, and, by the way, never showing up for court,” Trump said. Immigrants in the country illegally who claim asylum or have another potential legal basis for staying in the U.S. are often released from detention before their hearing. A large majority do show up for court dates, government figures indicate.

During a subsequent brief news conference with the presidents of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, Trump said he would meet later in the day with Defense Secretary James N. Mattis to discuss deploying the military at the border, a sign that the plan may not be fully hatched.

Even as Trump talked of dispatching soldiers for domestic duty, he repeated a surprise statement he first made last week, at an Ohio appearance, that he was likely to order U.S. troops to be pulled from Syria. This time, however, he added that he could change his mind if Saudi Arabia agrees to pay the bill.

“Sometimes, it’s time to come back home, and we’re thinking about that very seriously,” he said.

As for deploying troops to the border with Mexico, it was unclear how much — if any — planning had been done by Mattis or other top military officials to comply with Trump’s request. In interviews, several military officials said Trump’s announcement caught them off guard.

“What you’ve heard from the White House is the first I’ve heard,” said Kurt M. Rauschenberg, a spokesman for the National Guard Bureau, the Pentagon agency that oversees state National Guard organizations that likely would contribute the bulk of the troops to such an effort.

Deploying active-duty troops for domestic law enforcement is prohibited under a federal law known as the Posse Comitatus Act. In the past, however, the military has been used to aid the Border Patrol in a supporting role, without arrest authority.