President Donald Trump on Tuesday stated that he is planning to deploy U.S. troops along the southern border as a way to prevent illegal crossings “until we can have a wall.”
“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step,” Trump said to reporters at the White House.
Defense Secretary James Mattis was also at the press conference and was sitting next to Trump when he made his comments.
Because the U.S. Border Patrol, not the military, is tasked with protecting the border such a move would significantly raise the U.S. presence along the border with Mexico.
Meanwhile, Trump has returned to his hard-line position on immigration, backing away from his efforts to compromise with Democrats on Capitol Hill.
Over the past several days, the President has closed the door to a deal to protect young immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children, called on Mexico to step up efforts to detail illegal border crossers and sounded the alarm about a so-called “caravan” of Central American migrants heading for the U.S. border.
“If it reaches our border, our laws are so weak and so pathetic…it’s like we have no border,” Trump said.
Trump tied the caravan to the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals program that he ended last fall, even though it does not cover people who crossed the border this year.
According to The New York Times, the President is coming under mounting pressure from his base to secure a policy win on immigration, after he failed to secure $25 billion to build his proposed border wall in a government funding bill.
Trump even floated the possibility of pulling out of the North American Free Trade Agreement if Mexico does not take steps to curb the flow of immigrants crossing the border illegally.
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