Don’s losing his wall-nuts
Threatens to deploy soldiers along border
A FRUSTRATED President Trump threatened Tuesday to send military forces to secure the nation’s southern border on as he fumed over the lack of progress on his cherished wall.
“We’re going to be doing things militarily,” Trump said during a White House lunch with Baltic leaders. He called the measure a “big step.”
The U.S. Border Patrol is currently tasked with protecting the boundary with Mexico.
Trump has railed in recent days against “weak” immigration laws in the U.S. — 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.
“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military,” Trump said Tuesday. “We really haven’t done that before, or certainly not very much before.”
It was unclear how Trump’s proposal would be executed or what kind of troops he wants to deploy. Mexican officials asked the White House “for clarification” Tuesday evening, Foreign Affairs Secretary Luis Videgaray Caso tweeted.
“Mexico will define its position based on this clarification,” Caso added.
Federal law bars the U.S. government from employing activeduty military members for law enforcement on American soil. Previous administrations have been able to send troops by tweaking the nature of their deployment.
Former President George W. Bush sent 6,000 National Guard members to the border in 2006 to support agents with administrative, observational and intelligence ops.
Due to the heated political nature of militarizing the border, Bush assured then-Mexican President Vicente Fox that the National Guard was not involved in any law enforcement activities. Former President Barack Obama similarly sent about 1,200 National Guard troops to assist border agents in 2010. But Trump’s announcement implied military members would operate side-byside with border agents, a proposal that could violate federal law.
International and public affairs Prof. Christopher Sabatini of Columbia University said Trump lacks the grounds to station troops at the border.
“The military can only be called out in national security. This is not a matter of national security,” he said.
Sabatini blasted Trump’s proposal as “tone deaf,” calling it a continuation of his “attempt to portray immigrants as security threats.”
Throughout the 2016 election, Trump campaigned on an aggressive promise to crack down on immigration and vows to build a “big, beautiful” border wall that Mexico would finance. Mexico adamantly refuses to pay for the wall.
After taking office, Trump said Congress should approve the use of taxpayer money to cover the $25 billion his administration said would be needed to start work on the project.
Trump has also privately floated the idea of the Pentagon funding the construction of a border wall, arguing it is a national security priority.
The President last year ended the Obama-era program that protected young “Dreamer” immigrants and allowed them to work legally.
He has also bristled at news coverage of Honduran migrants who have been marching through Mexico in recent days. The migrants in caravans are not making a move on the U.S. border.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in December that illegal crossings are at their lowest levels in nearly 50 years.