Trump may send U.S. troops to Mexico
border, but migrants undeterred
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[October 26, 2018]
By Phil Stewart and Delphine Schrank
WASHINGTON/PIJIJIAPAN, Mexico (Reuters) -
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration may send up to 1,000
active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said on
Thursday, as Trump hammered away at the issue of illegal immigration two
weeks ahead of congressional elections.
Trump's threat was sparked by the advance of a caravan of Central
American migrants trekking through Mexico, headed toward the United
States.
"I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will
be stopped!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
But the migrants appeared undeterred on Thursday night as several
thousand of them bedded down more than 1,000 miles (1,610 km) from the
U.S. border, in the town of Pijijiapan in Mexico's southern Chiapas
state, after hiking hours from their last stop.
"Whatever Trump may say, he's not going to hold us back," said Denis
Omar Contreras, a caravan organizer from Honduras, who plans to help
lead the group to northern Mexico. Many said the fear of returning to a
violent homeland loomed larger than the president's threats.
"We've come fleeing our country. If we return to Honduras, the gangs
will probably kill us," he said.
Trump and his fellow Republicans have sought to make the caravan and
immigration into major issues before the Nov. 6 elections, in which
Republicans are battling to keep control of Congress.
Trump, who has maintained a hard line on immigration since taking office
last year, is considering a plan to ban entry of migrants at the
southern border and deny them asylum, according to media reports.
The reports offered few details. A White House official said "a wide
range of administrative, legal and legislative options" were being
considered, but that no decisions had been made.
The possibility of executive action to lock out any migrants in the
caravan and the likely positioning of more soldiers at the U.S. border
with Mexico could energize Trump supporters at the ballot box. Any ban
would face likely legal challenges.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in an interview
with Fox News Channel that her department had asked the Pentagon for
help to bolster its capabilities as it polices the border, including
asking for "some air support ... some logistics, planning, vehicle
barriers, engineering."
The DHS request could require deploying between 800 and 1,000
active-duty troops, two U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
The U.S. military is prohibited from carrying out civilian law
enforcement on American soil unless specifically authorized by Congress.
There are currently 2,100 National Guardsmen along the border, but the
DHS request could lead to the first large-scale deployment of
active-duty U.S. military forces to support the border protection
mission under Trump.
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Migrants, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America en
route to the United States, make their way to Pijijiapan from
Mapastepec, Mexico at dawn October 25, 2018. REUTERS/Ueslei
Marcelino
'GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY'
"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!"
Trump tweeted on Thursday.
"We feel like he's not human," said Carlos Fernandez, a 39-year-old
bricklayer, speaking by phone from the Guatemala-Mexico border after
traveling since last Friday from the crime-wracked city of San Pedro
Sula in Honduras.
"If someone migrates to the United States, it's to work, and working
is not a crime," he said.
More than 1,000 people arrived in Guatemala on Monday, part of a
second caravan, but have since divided into smaller groups to push
on northward.
The larger caravan is now in southern Mexico and left Honduras
nearly two weeks ago. It numbered more than 5,000 when it settled in
the town of Mapastepec on Wednesday night, a local official said.
Many are fleeing violence, poverty and government corruption in
their home countries.
"I wish he could see that we are doing this from our heart, with
great desire to move forward," said Jose Rodriguez, 29, referring to
the U.S. president.
Trump pledged during the 2016 presidential race to build a wall
along the southern U.S. border with Mexico. But the funding for his
signature campaign promise has been slow to materialize.
In April, frustrated by lack of progress on the wall, Trump ordered
the National Guard to help secure the border.
Adam Isacson, an official at the Washington Office on Latin America,
a group that advocates for migrant rights, expressed misgivings
about the potential deployment.
"Even if it's a short-term deployment, it's another step toward
militarization of our border," Isacson said, adding that 40 percent
of people being apprehended at the border were children and
families.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart in Washington and Delphine Schrank in
Pijijiapan; Additional reporting by Makini Brice, Steve Holland and
Yeganeh Torbati and Eric Beech in Washington, Michael O'Boyle in
Mexico City and Sofia Menchu in Guatemala City; Editing by Will
Dunham and Peter Cooney)
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