WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump's administration is expected to deploy additional U.S. troops to assist in security operations at the southern border in response to a caravan of Central American migrants traveling north on foot through Mexico, three U.S. officials confirmed Thursday.
The plan calls for 800 to 1,000 more troops, most of them active-duty forces from the Army and the Air Force, to join a growing border mission called for by Trump, one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.
Defense Secretary James Mattis is expected to authorize the additional deployment as early as today, officials said.
In a Thursday morning tweet, Trump called again for changes to U.S. immigration laws, which he said "make it tough for us to stop people at the Border." He added that he is "bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!"
Later, the president tweeted: "To those in the Caravan, turnaround, we are not letting people into the United States illegally. Go back to your Country and if you want, apply for citizenship like millions of others are doing!"
But critics have said Trump's response to the caravan, estimated to be in the thousands of people, has been aimed at fanning public fears over inflated security threats to rally his conservative base ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections.
The caravan is still weeks from reaching the U.S. border, and Mexican authorities said the number of migrants has dwindled rapidly, from an estimate of 7,200 by the United Nations early in the week to 3,630 on Wednesday. The Mexican government said it had processed 1,700 asylum claims.
It is also not clear what effect the troops would have, given that many of the migrants, if they reach the United States, would probably attempt to surrender to Border Patrol agents and seek asylum protections.
U.S. officials said the troops would not play a law enforcement role and would instead include engineers to build new traffic barriers, aviation support staffers, doctors and lawyers to provide legal representation.
"It's sad and irresponsible that the president would deploy the world's strongest military against a group of unarmed migrants, including women and children," said Kevin Appleby, a policy director at the Center for Migration Studies.
"It demonstrates that the administration's deterrence policies have failed and they are at the point of desperation in their immigration policies. They need a new approach, one that addresses regional challenges and the push factors from the [Central American] region. It's a waste of taxpayer money," he said.
The new deployments, first reported by CNN, would constitute a separate and distinct mission from Operation Guardian Support, as part of which about 2,100 National Guard troops have been involved in border operations since the spring. About 1,600 of those service members are in "border sectors," with others in headquarters units, officials said this week.
The addition of active-duty forces could raise concerns among human rights groups, given that the migrants in the caravan, which originated in Honduras, are made up largely of families, including children. U.S. officials said Thursday morning that the additional forces are not expected to include any "trigger pullers."
One U.S. official said the troops will have no law enforcement role, so the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that limits the use of the military for domestic law enforcement operations, does not apply. The official compared the deployment with active-duty troops assisting with hurricane relief.
The guardsmen already at the border are under orders from their respective state governors and remain under those governors' control. Mattis issued a memo this year that prohibited them from interacting directly with "migrants or other persons detained," and that directive is still in place, said Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman.
The Defense Department has examined this year providing space to other federal agencies to run camps for migrants on specific military bases, and it said in a June memo to Congress that it would prepare to house up to 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children on bases in coming months.
That plan would have similarities to 2014, when President Barack Obama's administration housed about 7,000 unaccompanied children on three military bases. But to date, the U.S. government has not moved forward with opening any camps on military bases.
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday that they did not know about the Pentagon's plans to add more troops. White House officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Information for this article was contributed by Nick Miroff of The Associated Press.
A Section on 10/26/2018