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TheCount
11-18-2018, 10:16 AM
Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the Halifax International Security Forum Saturday that the increased presence of military troops (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-immigration-rhetoric-quiets-after-midterms-with-thousands-of-troops-at-border/) at the U.S.-Mexico border is "not to deny access to migrants."

President Trump said before the midterm elections that he would order the deployment of up to 15,000 (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-says-hell-send-up-to-15000-troops-to-border/) military personnel to the border as a show of force against a caravan of migrants approaching the southern border. More than 5,000 troops have been deployed so far.

Dunford said military personnel were there to provide engineering support to points of entry, and to provide logistical and medical support to customs and border police.

"The tasks that we are providing are in support of the Department of Homeland Security. And nothing that we are doing is illegal," Dunford said. "What we are doing now in support of customs and border police and Homeland Security more broadly is filling legitimate capability gaps that they have with military capabilities."

Dunford said that the migrants would not face American soldiers upon crossing the border.
"Our job is not to deny access to migrants into the United States. Our job is to support the Department of Homeland Security in doing their job," Dunford said.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gen-joseph-dunford-chairman-of-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-says-militarys-job-at-border-is-not-to-deny-access-to-migrants/

Suzanimal
11-18-2018, 12:20 PM
And nothing that we are doing is illegal

https://i.imgur.com/3npkLdX.gif

Anti Federalist
11-18-2018, 12:31 PM
LOL - Camp of the Saints Redux.

Swordsmyth
11-18-2018, 06:06 PM
That will change.

TheCount
11-18-2018, 11:14 PM
That will change.
Nope.

Zippyjuan
11-19-2018, 02:38 PM
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/11/18/migrants-wont-see-armed-us-troops-on-the-border/


Why migrants won’t see armed US troops on the border


SAN DIEGO — As thousands of migrants in a caravan of Central American asylum-seekers converge on the doorstep of the United States, what they won’t find are armed American troops standing guard.

Instead they will see cranes installing towering panels of metal bars and troops wrapping concertina wire around barriers while military helicopters fly overhead, carrying border patrol agents to and from locations along the U.S.-Mexico border.

That’s because U.S. military troops are prohibited from carrying out law enforcement duties.

What's more, the bulk of the troops are in Texas — hundreds of miles away from the caravan that started arriving this week in Tijuana on Mexico's border with California after walking and hitching rides for the past month.

Still, for many migrants the barriers and barbed wire were an imposing show of force.

Angel Ulloa stood on Tijuana's beach where a wall of metal bars more than 20 feet high cut across the sand and plunged into the Pacific. He watched as crews on the U.S. side placed coils of barbed wire on top.

A border patrol agent wearing camouflage and armed with an assault rifle — part of a tactical unit deployed when there is a heightened threat — walked in the sand below where the men worked. A small border patrol boat hovered offshore.

"It's too much security to confront humble people who just want to work," said Ulloa, a 23-year-old electrician from Choloma, Honduras, who joined the caravan to try to make his first trip to the U.S.

Now, he and his two friends were rethinking their plans. They tried to apply for a job at a Wal-Mart in Tijuana but were told they need a Mexican work permit. So they were considering seeking asylum in Mexico but were unsure of giving up their dream of earning dollars.

"We're still checking things out," he said.



Of the 5,800 soldiers and Marines, more than 2,800 are in Texas, while about 1,500 are in Arizona and another 1,300 are in California. All U.S. military branches, except the Coast Guard, are barred from performing law enforcement duties.

That means there will be no visible show of armed troops, said Army Maj. Scott McCullough, adding that the mission is to provide support to Customs and Border Protection.

"Soldiers putting up wire on the border and barriers at the ports of entry will be the most visible," he said.

Marines and soldiers share the same duties in California and Arizona. These include erecting tents, setting up showers and arranging meals for troops working on the border, and assigning military police to protect them.

There are no tents or camps being set up to house migrants, McCullough said. Medics are on hand to treat troops and border patrol agents — not migrants — for cuts, bruises and any other problems.

more at link.

Swordsmyth
11-20-2018, 04:15 PM
President Donald Trump is likely to give U.S. troops authority to protect immigration agents stationed along the U.S. border with Mexico if they come under threat from migrants seeking to cross into the United States, a U.S. official said on Monday.Ahead of U.S. congressional elections earlier this month, Trump denounced the approach of a caravan of migrants as an "invasion" that threatened American national security, and he sent thousands of U.S. troops to the border to help secure it.
Currently, the troops do not have authority to protect U.S. Customs and Border Patrol personnel. The new authority could be announced on Tuesday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

More at: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-likely-u-troops-authority-protect-immigration-agents-020449502.html

Zippyjuan
11-20-2018, 04:42 PM
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/19/troops-us-mexico-border-come-home-1005510


Troops at U.S.-Mexican border to start coming home

The 5,800 troops who were rushed to the southwest border amid President Donald Trump’s pre-election warnings about a refugee caravan will start coming home as early as this week — just as some of those migrants are beginning to arrive.

Democrats and Republicans have criticized the deployment as a ploy by the president to use active-duty military forces as a prop to try to stem Republican losses in this month’s midterm elections.

The general overseeing the deployment told POLITICO on Monday that the first troops will start heading home in the coming days as some are already unneeded, having completed the missions for which they were sent. The returning service members include engineering and logistics units whose jobs included placing concertina wire and other barriers to limit access to ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border.

All the troops should be home by Christmas, as originally expected, Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan said in an interview Monday.

"Our end date right now is 15 December, and I've got no indications from anybody that we'll go beyond that," said Buchanan, who leads the land forces of U.S. Northern Command.

On Tuesday, Buchanan’s command appeared to backpedal on his statement after critics of the deployment called the decision to wind it down so soon new evidence it was unnecessary in the first place.

The plan to begin pulling back came just weeks after Trump ordered the highly unusual deployment.

In previous cases in which the military deployed to beef up security at the border, the forces consisted of part-time National Guard troops under the command of state governors who backed up U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other law enforcement agencies.

But the newly deployed troops, most of them unarmed and from support units, come from the active-duty military, a concession the Pentagon made after Trump insisted that the deployment include "not just the National Guard."

Buchanan confirmed previous reports that the military had rejected a request from the Department of Homeland Security for an armed force to back up Border Patrol agents in the event of a violent confrontation.

"That is a law enforcement task, and the secretary of Defense does not have the authority to approve that inside the homeland," Buchanan said.