WASHINGTON: The US military has received a request from the Department of Homeland Security for active-duty troops on the US-Mexico border, a US official said on Thursday, after President Donald Trump said he was “bringing out the military” to guard against a caravan of Central American migrants trekking through Mexico.
The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US military was examining the request that could require deploying between 800 and 1,000 active-duty troops to the border to assist with logistics and infrastructure. The US official said that any troops deployed to the border would not be involved in “law enforcement” activities, something that would be prohibited by a federal law dating to the 1870s.
That law restricts the use of the Army and other main branches of the military for civilian law enforcement on US soil unless specifically authorized by Congress. But the military can provide support services to law enforcement and has done so on occasion since the 1980s.
Some specific statutes authorize the president to deploy troops within the United States for riot control or relief efforts after natural disasters.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has taken a hard line towards immigration — legal and illegal — since becoming president last year. On Monday, Trump said he had alerted the Border Patrol and the US military that the migrant caravan was a national emergency.
Despite raising Trump’s ire, thousands of Central American men, women and children seeking to escape violence, poverty and government corruption in their home countries continued their journey towards the distant US border.
Under a full moon early on Thursday, they walked from Mapastepec, close to the Guatemala border in southern Mexico. A town official said there had been 5,300 migrants in Mapastepec on Wednesday night.
A second group of more than a thousand people has started a similar journey from Guatemala.
“I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the migrants. White House officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump’s comments regarding a military deployment and a national emergency.
Trump and his fellow Republicans have sought to make the caravan and immigration major issues ahead of the November 6 congressional elections in which the party is trying to maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. — Reuters
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