Faithful Patriot
Donald Trump defended sending U.S. troops to the southern border with Mexico, citing national security concerns as a caravan of several thousand people approached the border. He ordered varying numbers of U.S. active-duty and National Guard troops to help fortify the southern U.S.-Mexico border.
On January 31, Trump announced in a tweet the upcoming deployment of US forces to Mexican border "to stop the attempted Invasion of Illegals." "The Department of Defense will deploy approximately 3,750 additional U.S. forces to provide the additional support to CBP at the southwest border… This will raise the total Active Duty forces supporting CBP at the border to approximately 4,350," the Pentagon's press service said. Besides that, a mobile surveillance capability will be positioned at the border and around 150 miles (241 kilometers) of concertina wire will be pulled between the ports of entry before the end of September 2019.
On April 4, 2018, Trump sought to deploy National Guard troops on the U.S. border with Mexico, citing a “drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border” that he said was threatening national security. On April 5, Defense Department Secretary Jim Mattis authorized up to 4,000 National Guard troops but specifies they will not perform law enforcement duties or interact with migrants. The National Guard is made up of 435,000 reserve soldiers who can be called up by either the federal government or the states. Over the following weeks, the number of National Guardsmen called up to guard the border reached 2,100. On Aug. 31: The National Guard mission at the southern U.S. border was extended for another year.
On 18 October 2018, as a caravan of migrants begins marching toward Mexico and the US, Trump threatened in a tweet to send troops to the border. On 25 October the Department of Homeland Security requested additional troops at the border and the Defense Department was expected to deploy 800. On 29 October 2018 the U.S. military said it will send more than 5,000 troops to the border, but two days later Trump said he could send as many as 15,000 troops to the border. "As far as the caravan is concerned our military is out, we have about 5,000-8 (thousand), we'll go up to anywhere between 10 (thousand) and 15,000 military personnel on top of border patrol, ICE and everybody else on the border."
On 02 November 2018 the Pentagon declined a White House request for troops to serve as law enforcement on the border. Instead, they were ordered to do tasks that suport border authorities, such as laying razor wire. On 15 November 2018 the troop deployment at the border topped out at 5,800.
By October 2018 about 3,000 Hondurans were in a refugee caravan passing through Guatemala trying to reach the United States. Mexico’s government said those with proper documents can enter Mexico and those who don’t either have to apply for refugee status or face deportation. Many felt traveling in a large group would lessen their chances of falling victim to robbery and assault.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith broke from his coworkers on the opinion side of the company to stress that the political hysteria about the migrant caravan making its way north through Mexico is nothing to worry about. "There is no invasion. No one is coming to get you. There is nothing at all to worry about," he said during his show on 29 October 2018. Smith said that the caravan is at least two months from reaching the southern border of the United States, if they even decided to go there. He said the conversation about it only exists because of the approaching midterm elections on November 6. "Tomorrow, the migrants, according to Fox News reporting, are almost two months away, if any of them actually come here," he said. "But tomorrow is one week before the midterm election, which is what all of this is about."
As immigration opponents frothed over the caravan making its way from Central America toward the United States, some floated the idea that asylum-seekers will bring disease with them — including one that was wiped out nearly 40 years ago. Former immigration agent David Ward, also appearing on Fox, cited a disease that doesn't actually exist anymore. “We have these individuals coming in from all over the world that have some of the most extreme medical care in the world,” Ward said. “And they're coming in with diseases such as smallpox and leprosy and TB [tuberculosis] that are going to infect our people in the United States.”
The first caravan, whose numbers had dwindled to less than 4,000, was in the southern city of Juchitan on 31 October 2018, about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from McAllen, Texas. The second, smaller U.S.-bound caravan of about 2,000 people forced its way into Mexico on Monday from the Guatemalan border. It settled down 30 October 2018 in the Mexican town of Tapachula, about 1,850 kilometers (1,150 miles) from McAllen. Trump used the caravans to rally his Republican base before the Nov. 6 midterm elections, declaring on several occasions their approach toward the United States constitutes a "national emergency." Trump and his conservative allies spread warnings about a Central American migrant caravan that is hundreds of kilometers from the southern U.S. border. "I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!," Trump wrote in a post on Twitter 25 October 2018. Such caravans had been routine over the years without much attention, but Trump used the caravan to rally his Republican base before the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
On 29 October 2018, Trump described the migrant caravan as an "invasion on our country" as his administration announced plans to deploy at least 5,200 troops to the border. Donald Trump claimed "Many Gang Members" and "some very bad people" are mixed into the caravan of migrants slowly moving north through Mexico toward the U.S., calling it an "invasion of Our Country" and that the U.S. military is "waiting for you." Trump said on Twitter "Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process."
Trump claimed Central American migrant caravans slowly moving toward the U.S. include "very tough fighters" who "fought back hard and viciously" against Mexican soldiers at the border, in his latest warning about the migrants in the lead up to the midterm election. Trump said some of the soldiers were injured and overwhelmed by members of the caravans, the first of which is comprised mostly of women and children and the other made up of primarily young people. Trump's tweet was referring to reports that a group of migrants broke through a gate at Guatemala's border, clashing with local police.
Trump said immigration is now one of the leading issues in the 2018 midterms, and he accused Democrats of supporting the migrants because they “figure everybody coming in is going to vote Democrat.” Republican Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida tweeted a video of men handing out money to people standing in line. He claimed the video showed people being paid in Honduras to join a caravan and “storm the border (at) election time.” Trump re-tweeted the video, writing, “Can you believe this, and what Democrats are allowing to be done to our Country?”
International law clearly states any person whose life may be in danger has the right to seek asylum and benefit from international protection. “Our position globally is that the individuals who are fleeing persecution and violence need to be given access to territory and protection including refugee status and determination procedure," UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told VOA. "And, if the people who are fleeing persecution and violence enter Mexico, they need to be provided access to the Mexican asylum system and those entering the United States need to be provided access to the American asylum system.”
Since the first caravan left San Pedro Sula, Honduras on Oct. 12, Donald Trump threatened to end aid to Central American countries and has claimed that caravan participants are gang members and criminals. Stirring up anti-immigration and economic worries ahead of the legislator elections Trump tweeted last Tuesday: "Every time you see a Caravan, or people illegally coming, or attempting to come, into our country illegally, think of and blame the Democrats for not giving us the votes to change our pathetic Immigration Laws! Remember the Midterms! So unfair to those who come in legally." The head of state was hoping to maintain control of Congress till the end of his term. Vice President Mike Pence claimed the Exodus was the work of Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
Most of those traveling north are from Honduras. There was no evidence to back up President Donald Trump's claim that "Middle Easterners" are also with the group. Illness, police harassment and fear took their toll on the migrants, which by 25 October 2018 numbered between 4,000 and 5,000, a sharp decrease from the estimated 7,000 from just days earlier. Officials said nearly 1,700 migrants already have dropped out and applied for asylum in Mexico. A few hundred weary migrants accepted Mexican government offers to transport them back to their home countries.
Trump blasted Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala for not stopping their citizens from departing for the US. He said he would begin cutting off or reducing foreign aid to those countries and threatened last week to use military troops to close the border. The Mexican government declined to give the migrants food, water, or even access to bathroom facilities, leaving it to private citizens, church groups or sympathetic local officials to provide essential goods
The Defense Department will deploy more than 5,000 active-duty personnel to aid the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection “to harden the southern border,” Air Force Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, the commander of U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Command said 29 October 2018. “Border security is national security,” the general said at a news conference at the Ronald Reagan Building here, today. He briefed the press alongside U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan.
The active-duty troops will be participating in Operation Faithful Patriot, the general said. “As we sit here today, we have about 800 soldiers who are on their way to Texas,” the general said. The troops are coming from Fort Campbell and Fort Knox, Kentucky. “By the end of this week we will deploy over 5,200 soldiers to the Southwest border,” he said. “That is just the start of this operation. We will continue to adjust the numbers and inform you of those.”
The active duty soldiers will join 2,092 National Guardsmen participating in Operation Guardian Support. The deployment “fully adheres to our current authorities and governed by law and policy,” the general said. The troops that deploy with weapons will carry them, the general said.
The troops will be in support of law enforcement with Customs and Border Protection, McAleenan said. The agency is facing something new. “What is new and challenging about this caravan phenomenon is the formation of multiple large groups, which present unique safety and border security threats,” he said at the news conference. “Due to the large size of the potential caravans that may arrive at the border, however, the Department of Homeland Security has further requested the support of the Department of Defense.”
The agency has requested aid in air and ground transportation, and logistics support, to move CBP personnel where needed. Officials also asked for engineering capabilities and equipment to secure legal crossings, and medical support units. CBP also asked for housing for deployed Border Protection personnel and extensive planning support.
The commissioner said there are two caravans that the agency is watching. One has already made illegal entry across two international borders, and the second – still in Guatemala – “has deployed violent and dangerous tactics against Guatemalan and Mexican border security teams,” he said. “Accordingly, we are preparing for the contingency of a large group of arriving persons intending to enter the United States in the next several weeks.
Operation Faithful Patriot will harden the U.S. border with Mexico. “In a macro sense, our concept of operations is to flow in our military assets with a priority to build up Southern Texas then Arizona and then California,” O’Shaughnessy said. “We will reinforce along priority points of entry to enhance CBPs ability to harden and secure the border.”
Members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will bring their experience to the border, the general said. They will be joined by three combat engineer battalions with expertise in building temporary barriers and fencing. The battalions will bring their heavy equipment “which as we speak is long hauling toward Texas,” the general said.
Military planning teams were already engaged with CBP counterparts. The military is also providing three medium lift helicopter companies and military police units. There are already three C-130 Hercules and one C-17 Globemaster III aircraft standing by to provide strategic airlift for CBP.
The number of aliens from the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA) countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala who were subject to expedited removal has increased from 29,206 in FY 2008 (18 percent of the total) to 103,752 in FY 2018 (44 percent of the total). By comparison, Mexican nationals represented 39 percent of the aliens in expedited removal in FY 2018 (91,235). Of the 97,192 aliens interviewed in credible fear proceedings in FY 2018, 83,862 had their cases decided on the merits, and the rest were closed. Asylum officers found credible fear in the vast majority of the decided cases: 89 percent (74,534). This is an increase over FY 2008, when about 3,200 credible fear findings were made (77 percent of all cases), and over FY 2014, when about 35,000 credible fear findings were made (80 percent of all cases). In 31 percent of all initial completions in immigration court in FY 2018 that originated from credible-fear referrals, the alien failed to appear.
Only a very small percentage of aliens referred after credible fear proceedings who applied for asylum were granted asylum. Specifically, in FY 2018, of 20,563 referral cases in which asylum was applied for, immigration judges granted asylum in only 5,639. In other words, in the last fiscal year, asylum was granted in only 17 percent of all completed referred cases, 27 percent of all completed referred cases in which an asylum application was filed, and 36 percent of completed referred cases where an asylum claim was adjudicated on the merits.
Active duty military forces operating in Title 10 status are generally prohibited from direct participation in law enforcement activities without proper statutory authorization. For example, §1004 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991, as amended, allows the Secretary of Defense to provide support for the counterdrug activities of any other department or agency of the federal government or of any state, local, or foreign law enforcement agency if certain criteria, set out in the statute, are met.
National Guard has supported DHS’s border security mission in the four southwest border states through two missions: Operation Jump Start (2006-2008) and Operation Phalanx (2010-2011). These missions varied in size and scope. The estimated DOD cost was about $1.35 billion for two separate border operations conducted by the National Guard forces in Title 32 status from June 2006 to July 2008 and again from June 2010 through September 30, 2011.
On 15 Decembefr 2018 the military mission at the border was scheduled to end, unless it was extended.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
