The Pentagon said it is sending 5,200 US troops to the southwest border in an extraordinary military operation ordered up just a week before midterm elections in which US President Donald Trump has put a sharp focus on Central American migrants moving north in slow-moving caravans that are still hundreds of kilometers from the US.
The number of troops being deployed is more than double the 2,000 who are in Syria fighting the Islamic State group.
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!”
Photo: Reuters
However, 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 on Monday, 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 Channel’s Laura Ingraham. “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 is intended 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 defenses at and near legal entry points.
Advanced helicopters will allow border protection agents to swoop down 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,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said.
Eight hundred troops are on their way to southern Texas and their numbers would top 5,200 by week’s end, O’Shaughnessy said.
Some of the troops will be armed. He said troops would focus first on Texas, followed by Arizona and then California.
The troops are to join the more than 2,000 National Guardsmen that Trump has already deployed to the border. It remained unclear on Monday why the administration was choosing to send active-duty troops given that 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 4,000 from about 7,000 last week, though 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 on Monday.
The riverbank standoff with Mexico police followed a more violent confrontation on Sunday when the migrants used sticks and rocks against officers.
One migrant was killed on Sunday night by a head wound, but the cause was unclear.
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