In an interview aboard Air Force One on Monday, President Trump made clear there was no limit to the number of troops he’s willing to send to the border to address the growing migrant caravan quickly making its way through hot and humid temperatures in Mexico to the U.S. border, Fox News informed.
The President previously vowed to send the U.S. military, as opposed to the National Guard, to confront the group, which the United Nations now estimates is over 7,200 members strong. Dramatic footage over the weekend showed the caravan, which is at least 1,100 miles from the U.S. border, defying Trump’s warnings and smashing a border fence, as migrants flooded into Mexico despite the presence of riot police.
Asked how many troops he was willing to send, Trump told the paper simply, “as many as necessary.”
More than 1,000 members of the caravan already have applied for asylum in Mexico, according to the country’s government. It remained unclear whether this caravan would retain its numbers during the remainder of its journey; a similar caravan earlier this year started with 1,200 members and finished with 200 migrants arriving at the California border.
Deploying a large number of U.S. military personnel would avert some of the political headaches Trump faced earlier this year, when he tusseled with the governments of several states, including California, over how many of their National Guard troops they would agree to send to assist with border enforcement. In May, the president of a major union representing U.S. Border Patrol personnel claimed that Trump’s decision to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border that month was “a colossal waste of resources.”
Federal law restricts National Guard troops in federal service from performing law enforcement activities, but they can when operating under state authority and are permitted to assist Border Patrol officers with certain law enforcement functions. The President has far greater authority to direct the U.S. military, as long as it is deployed off U.S. soil.
With less than three weeks until the pivotal Nov. 6 midterm elections, Trump has sought to portray his administration as a swift, decisive force on border security. In several major rallies across the nation, he has called this the “election of the caravan,” among other salient issues.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House earlier Monday, Trump slammed several Central American countries that he charged were “doing nothing” about the caravan.
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