Trump says 15,000 troops could be sent to Mexico border

World
Europe

01:16

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the United States could send as many as 15,000 troops to the border with Mexico, as he hardens his stance against what he described as dangerous groups of immigrants.

With more than 5,000 soldiers already being sent, Trump told reporters: "We'll do up to anywhere between 10 and 15,000 military personnel."

US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House, Washington, DC, US. /VCG Photo

"It's a dangerous group of people," Trump said of the latest caravan of mostly impoverished Central Americans trying to walk through Mexico to the US border.

"They're not coming into our country."

The numbers cited by Trump are significantly higher than defense officials have disclosed. The Pentagon said on Monday it was deploying more than 5,200 troops to the border but that the number would rise. On Wednesday, it said more than 7,000 troops would support the Department of Homeland Security along the border.

Several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have accused Trump of politicizing the military ahead of next week's congressional elections with his plans to use active military personnel to buttress border patrol efforts.

Trump did not say how many of those 15,000 would be National Guard. There are already 2,100 US National Guard forces at the border, sent after a previous Trump request in April, and they are authorized to go up to 4,000.

Some of the thousands of Central American migrants in the caravan rest at a camp for the evening in Juchitan de Zaragoza, Mexico, October 30, 2018. /VCG Photo

If 15,000 troops were drawn into the effort, it would mean there would be more US troops on the border with Mexico than there are in Afghanistan, which has become America's longest conflict.

Trump has sought to use immigration as an issue to motivate Republican voters ahead of the November 6 elections, where Republicans will seek to maintain control of both congressional chambers.

As a presidential candidate before the US election in 2016, Trump promised to harden immigration laws and build a wall along the southern border with Mexico, but the implementation of his signature campaign promise has been slow.

A caravan of Central American migrants estimated to number at least 3,500 people left Honduras in mid-October and is now in southern Mexico on its way to the US border.

'We don't do stunts'

Before Trump's comments, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Wednesday rejected criticism that deploying thousands of troops to the border with Mexico was a political stunt.

US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis (R) welcomes South Korean National Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo during a full honor arrival at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, US, October 31, 2018. /VCG Photo

"The support that we provide to the secretary for homeland security is practical support based on the request from the commissioner of customs and border police, so we don't do stunts in this department," Mattis said after a meeting with his South Korean counterpart at the Pentagon.

Republican lawmakers and other Trump supporters have applauded the deployment. But critics argue Trump has manufactured a crisis to drive Republican voters to the polls.

"The move to send 5,200 active duty troops to the southern border is a craven political stunt that sets a bad precedent and is arguably an abuse of power," said Kelly Magsamen, a former senior Pentagon official who is currently with the Center for American Progress left-leaning think tank.

Trump's decision to call in the military appears to be a departure from past practice. In recent years, such operations have been carried out by National Guard forces, largely part-time military members often called upon to respond to domestic emergencies.

A group of Central Americans who are hoping to apply for asylum, wait at the border on an international bridge between Mexico and the US in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, October 31, 2018. /VCG Photo

The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday described "an unprecedented crisis on our Southern Border".

However, according to the department's own figures, the number of illegal immigrants intercepted in 2018 was only 400,000, down 25 percent on the figure in 2000.

The major change, the department points out, is that in 2000 nearly all the illegal immigrants were single adults and today around half are coming in families or as unaccompanied minors.

Video blames the Democrats

Amid his act of sending numbers of soldiers to the border, the president tweeted an ad-style video about Lusi Bracamontes on Wednesday afternoon, an undocumented man, who was convicted of murdering two US police officers in 2014 together with other crimes and was sentenced to death earlier this year.

Screenshot of US President Donald Trump's tweet of October 31, 2018. /CGTN Photo

Trump shared this video with the words" It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country. Vote Republican now!" blaming the Democrats for letting undocumented people into the country and triggering crimes and violence.

The ad ends with “President Donald J. Trump and Republicans are making America safe again”.

The ad fails to cover that compared to American citizens illegal immigrants commit crime at a lower rate.

(With inputs from agencies)