New Trump border idea: Use soldiers as guards
Scholars challenge legality of proposal
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he plans to post military forces at the U.S. border with Mexico, even as experts questioned the legality of his proposition.
During a working lunch with Baltic leaders, Trump told reporters he had talked to Defense
Secretary Jim Mattis about the situation at the border. “We’re going to be doing things militarily. Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step. We really haven’t done that before — certainly not very much before.”
Legal scholars were quick to question the legality of deploying U.S. troops to enforce the border. Under federal law — the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 — U.S. troops “are not allowed to enforce the law” and are not allowed to arrest people, said University of California, Berkeley law professor John Yoo. Turning soldiers into cops, he offered, threatens to degrade their skill set.
Stephen Dycus of the Vermont School of Law noted that Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama ordered U.S. troops to provide support for the Border Patrol and to help with surveillance and training — but not with arrests or seizures.
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“The most important part is, A, the apparent illegality of what he’s proposing to do, but even more important, B, that it really stands in the face of this really clear American tradition of avoiding military involvement in civilian life,” Dycus said.
But Mark Krikorian of the pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies said, “No president wants a migration emergency on their hands.
“There’s a potential role for soldiers at the border,” Krikorian said, “although it’s mainly in a support role.”
Mobilizing National Guard
The White House later clarified that Trump wanted to mobilize the National Guard, as Bush did in 2006 and Obama did four years later.
Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon said Defense Department officials “are in consultation with the White House,” but he had no specific information.
Trump has been annoyed by the lack of progress on building what was the signature promise of his campaign: a “big, beautiful wall” along the Mexican border. He’s previously suggested using the Pentagon’s budget to pay for building the wall, arguing it is a national security priority, despite strict rules that prohibit spending that’s not authorized by Congress.
The president met Tuesday with top administration officials, including Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, to discuss the administration’s strategy. The White House said the officials also “agreed on the need to pressure Congress to urgently pass legislation to close legal loopholes exploited by criminal trafficking, narco-terrorist and smuggling organizations.”
Trump has been building a head of steam since Buzzfeed, and then Fox News, reported on a caravan of Hondurans moving through Mexico toward the U.S. border in search of asylum or the opportunity to cross the border illegally.
“Trump’s driven by gut reactions,” said Krikorian, so when he read about the caravan he instinctively wanted to stop it. Indeed, after Trump tweeted about the situation, the Mexican government halted the caravan’s progress.
No DACA deal
On Sunday morning, Trump tweeted that federal law does not allow the Border Patrol to block migrants seeking to cross the border. “‘Caravans’ coming,” Trump wrote. “Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”
DACA is the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program implemented under Obama in June 2012 to provide legal status for some 800,000 undocumented immigrants, known as “Dreamers,” who came into the United States as minors through no fault of their own.
On Sept. 5, Sessions announced an end to DACA, arguing that the Obama administration had “deliberately sought to achieve what the legislative branch specifically refused to authorize on multiple occasions.”
At the same time, Trump signaled a willingness to use a six-month grace period to broker a deal with Democrats to extend DACA. A deal never occurred, partly because Democrats would not agree to Trump’s demands for border wall funding and limits on legal immigration, and partly because Trump undermined a measure that might have passed the Senate with his imprimatur.
Trump has continued to blame Democrats for robbing him of a DACA deal. During the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, a reporter shouted questions at Trump. “What about the DACA kids? Should they worry about what’s going to happen to them?”
Trump responded, “The Democrats have clearly let them down.”
At the same time, White House policymakers had begun to distance themselves from DACA. During a background briefing Monday, White House officials suggested that Obama’s 2012 DACA decision served as an incentive that led to a surge of nearly 70,000 unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S. border with Mexico in fiscal 2014.
Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal. com or 202-62-7391. Follow @ Debrajsaunders on Twitter.