They start to be a race. The Pentagon will deploy up to 1,500 more US troops to the border with Mexico, after the president signed a series of other executive orders to seal the dividing line, “protect” the States from an alleged “invasion” and even limit the right of citizenship by birth. To ensure that its initiatives are implemented as it wants, the Justice Department has already made it known that it will investigate, and could take to court, officials it thinks are dragging their feet in implementing them.
In addition to the soldiers on the ground, the Pentagon will also send helicopters and their crews and intelligence analysts to “support detection and surveillance efforts,” according to the acting Secretary of Defense, Robert Saless, in a statement. The deployment “increases the presence of soldiers on the ground by 60%” since Trump’s inauguration, he stated.
The contingent, the first in a series that could reach up to 10,000 soldiers, will provide flights for the deportation of more than 5,000 irregular immigrants from San Diego (California) and El Paso (Texas) detained by the border patrol. Its soldiers will also help with the construction of temporary and permanent barriers on the border, and will provide “additional security to prevent illegal border crossings and illicit trafficking,” the statement said.
“This is just the beginning,” notes the Pentagon. Soon, he announces, he will “develop and execute” other missions, in cooperation with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal and state agencies, to “tackle all types of threats at our borders.”
Trump had declared the fight against illegal immigration his primary objective. In his first 72 hours in office, the border and immigration have accounted for a good part of the barrage of measures he has approved, and which are expected to also include extensive raids against irregular immigrants. in the next few days. “I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. “All illegal entries will be stopped immediately, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of illegal criminals to the places from which they came,” he promised.
The sending of additional troops follows “his action on day one to direct the Department of Defense to make national security a priority of its mission. It is something that the president promised in his election campaign and that the American people expected. It is an absolute priority of the American people and the president has fulfilled it,” said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
The new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who took office for the first time this Tuesday, has had among his first tasks a telephone conversation with his counterpart in Mexico, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, to discuss migration and security cooperation. .
But since Monday, the possibility that in the future soldiers on the border could perform civil police functions is also in the air. It is an extreme step and one that, in principle, has been prohibited by the Posse Comitatus law since 1878. But there is an exception: the invocation of another older norm, from 1807, the Law against Insurrection, intended to quell internal rebellions.
Historically, the law against insurrection has been applied in dribs and drabs and surrounded by controversy. In modern times it had not been used since 1992, when then-President George Bush used it to end violent riots that broke out in Los Angeles after a court acquitted four police officers in the death of black motorist Rodney King.
Trump has pointed out the possibility of taking that step now. The executive order that the new American president signed just hours after being sworn in stipulates that the Pentagon may send as many soldiers as it deems necessary to guarantee “absolute operational control of the southern border of the United States.” ”. The decree also requires the secretaries of Defense and Homeland Security to present a plan to seal the borders and determine if additional measures are necessary. Among them, invoking the Law against Insurrection.
The soldiers mobilized now will join the nearly 2,200 soldiers and thousands of National Guard troops who are already deployed on the border. During his first term, Trump had ordered the deployment of 5,200 uniformed personnel to protect the line; Democratic President Joe Biden had also sent troops to the area.
On Tuesday, after Trump fired the commander of the Coast Guard, Admiral Linda Fagan, this body of the US Armed Forces announced the sending of additional planes, ships and personnel to the “U.S. Gulf” (the name given to the new Administration has given the Gulf of Mexico) to carry out surveillance tasks. That deployment will extend to Florida waters to “prevent and deter massive maritime migration from Haiti and Cuba.”
But the military reinforcement on the border is not the only measure that Trump has imposed to control irregular immigration and try to turn the area into an impenetrable barrier. On Monday, among his dozens of executive orders, he signed , enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The Republican’s decree would take away the nationality of children born to irregular immigrant parents or who are in the United States legally but with a temporary stay permit, for tourism or work. Immediately, 22 States under Democratic control denounced this measure in court as unconstitutional.
On Tuesday he already authorized that the raids that he has promised, and that he threatens to unleash at any moment, can even be extended to churches, schools or hospitals. Also. And the Department of Justice has ordered an investigation of any official, whether federal, state or local, who obstructs the full implementation of the new measures.
Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove has issued an order stating that federal law prohibits “resisting, obstructing, or otherwise failing to comply with orders.” Therefore, his Department “will investigate incidents that involve any type of irregular behavior, for the possible prosecution” of their authors.
