WASHINGTON – (AP/CLARKSVILLENOW) President Donald Trump says the number of military troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexican border could go much higher.
“As far as the caravan is concerned, our military is out … We’ll go up to anywhere between 10 and 15,000 military personnel, on top of Border Patrol, ICE and everybody else at the border,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
President Trump says U.S. troops at Mexico border could reach 15,000 https://t.co/NbDfikEudx pic.twitter.com/a6bZBPVpnz
— TIME (@TIME) October 31, 2018
Trump says the deployment, which includes 260 Fort Campbell soldiers is necessary to prevent entry of a migrant caravan that is still nearly 1,000 miles and weeks away from the U.S. border.
Republican lawmakers and other Trump supporters have applauded the deployment. But critics, including former Trump administration Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan argue against the move as a misuse of the military for political purposes.
https://twitter.com/DaveLapanDC/status/1057608398286610434
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.
[ss-promo op_id=”521445″ op_guid=”3c526887-e9ae-4f2a-9524-38953ab52869″ routing=”hash”]
The Associated Press contributed to this report.