Pentagon set to send 300 more troops to Mexico border, some in contact with migrants
APRIL 26, 2019 / 10:13 AM / UPDATED 8 MINUTES AGO
Pentagon set to send 300 more troops to Mexico border, some in contact with migrants
Idrees Ali
WASHINGTON(Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Friday that it expected to send about 300 additional troops to the border with Mexico including roughly 100 cooks who would hand out meals, breaking with past policy to avoid troops coming in contact with migrants.
The move is the latest sign of a growing U.S. military support role for President Donald Trump’s politically charged immigration policies.
Earlier this month, Trump said he would have to mobilize more of the military at the U.S. border with Mexico after listening to stories about migrants crossing the border from people attending a Republican fundraiser.
The Pentagon has previously said there were no plans for U.S. forces to interact with migrants as they support border agents dealing with illegal immigration.
In addition to the cooks, the Pentagon is expected to send 160 drivers and 20 lawyers, Pentagon spokesman Charlie Summers said.
“We will have some of our troops handing out meals, therefore would come in contact with migrants,” Summers said. He said it was an “amendment to the current policy.”
There are currently about 5,000 active-duty and National Guard troops near the border, though that number fluctuates.
There has been increasing concern about the military playing a growing role on the border with Mexico.
The Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law on the books since the 1870s, restricts using the U.S. Army and other main branches of the military for civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil, unless specifically authorized by Congress.
But the military can provide support services to law enforcement and has done so on occasion since the 1980s.
Earlier this month six Mexican military personnel questioned two U.S. Army soldiers near Clint, Texas. A U.S. military investigation found the American soldiers were in U.S. territory during the incident, while the Mexican personnel believed they were south of the border. []
Trump has made immigration a signature issue of his presidency and of his re-election campaign. He declared a national emergency over the issue earlier this year in an effort to redirect funding from Congress to build a wall along the U.S. southern border.
On Wednesday, Trump reiterated threats to close part of the U.S.-Mexico border if Mexico doesn’t block what described as a new caravan of migrants headed north.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-u...-idUSKCN1S21XV
Pentagon Prepares to Increase Military Involvement at Border
Friday, April 26, 2019 12:50 PM
By: Theodore Bunker
The Pentagon is set to waive a longstanding policy that prohibits military personnel from having contact with migrants as part of a move to increase the military’s involvement at the Southwest border, The Washington Post reports.
Senior officials at the Department of Defense have asked acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan to authorize waivers for over 300 troops following a Department of Homeland Security request for military lawyers, cooks and drivers along the southern border. The Pentagon previously approved a similar request that provides emergency medical care for migrants if necessary.
Last month, the DHS processed over 103,000 migrants after a surge in immigration, which the Post notes is the highest one-month total in over 10 years. Border Patrol officials report that they’ve become too busy with migrant families to conduct their law enforcement duties, and have particularly felt the need for more drivers and agents to bring migrants to hospitals.
The request specifies that the military personnel would stay in a “segregated driver’s compartment,” and will not act in a law enforcement capacity. They will also be asked to help distribute food to migrants being held in detention facilities, and to “document the provision of care” for those migrants. The military attorneys would help in deportation hearings taking place in New Mexico, New York and Louisiana.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pe.../26/id/913491/
