Trump plans for US troops to guard border
He also threatens cutting foreign aid to Honduras
WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump on Tuesday signaled plans to escalate a crackdown on illegal immigration, announcing that the U.S. military will be sent to guard the U.S.-Mexico border and threatening foreign aid to Honduras.
For the third straight day, Trump seized on coverage of a “caravan” of 1,000 migrants, primarily from Honduras, to call for tougher immigration policies and warn of what he called “weak” border security.
But the prospect of cutting off foreign aid, as well as sending military personnel to the southern border, added a new dimension to Trump’s immigration strategy that so far had centered on threats to walk away from the North American Free Trade Agreement and pressuring Congress to send him funding for a border wall.
Trump floated the threat about foreign aid in a tweet early Tues-
day morning. Later, during a meeting with the leaders of three Baltic nations, the president disclosed plans to send troops to the border.
“We are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” Trump said Tuesday. “We cannot have people flowing into our country illegally, disappearing, and by the way, never showing up for court.”
Deploying troops to the border is not unprecedented. The Obama administration sent 1,200 National Guard troops to the southern border in 2010 to assist Border Patrol and immigration officials amid rising concerns about drug trafficking.
But American law may also restrict how much the military can do to carry out Trump’s wishes. The late19th century Posse Comitatus Act is viewed as prohibiting the use of the military to execute domestic laws, according to a 2013 report by the Congressional Research Service.
Officials at the Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to questions about how they might carry out the president’s proposal.
In 2014, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would dispatch as many as 1,000 National Guard troops to the southern border as the country faced an influx of migrant children and families from Central America. Perry is now Trump’s energy
secretary.
“The caravan doesn’t irritate me, the caravan makes me very sad that this could happen to the United States,” Trump said.
The “caravan” — an annual event that is meant to draw attention to the refugee crisis in Central America
— has spurred new calls from Trump for an immigration crackdown, particularly funding for a U.S.Mexico border wall that has eluded him. Conservative media outlets have has focused on the caravan in recent days.
“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,” Trump tweeted shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday. “Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!”
Honduras received about $127.5 million in aid from the United States in fiscal 2016, according to data from the U.S. Agency for International Development. Congress is in a two-week recess.
He referred to the caravan in tweets Monday night, accusing Democrats
of allowing “open borders, drugs and crime” while deriding U.S. immigration laws as an “Obama joke.”
“Honduras, Mexico and many other countries that the U.S. is very generous to, sends many of their people to our country through our WEAK IMMIGRATION POLICIES. Caravans are heading here. Must pass tough laws and build the WALL. Democrats allow open borders, drugs and crime!”
Officials in Mexico have since intervened to halt the caravan, suggesting that some of the migrants could obtain humanitarian visas to remain there while others would have to return to their home country. Mexico’s Interior Ministry said Monday that “under no circumstances does the government of Mexico promote irregular migration.”
Meanwhile, White House officials are preparing new proposals that they say would close “loopholes” in U.S. immigration laws. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security is pushing for the end of the “catch and release” practice, which allows undocumented immigrants who have been apprehended to be released while they await their hearings.