MillenniumPost
World

Trump inks order to deploy army on US-Mexico border

Washington DC: President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing the deployment of military along the US-Mexico border to fight illegal immigration, asserting that the situation had reached "a point of crisis."
The announcement came a day after Trump said he intended to deploy the National Guard to the US-Mexico border until his administration was able to deliver on his campaign promise to build a wall to bolster security.
Given the importance to secure borders for national security, the National Guard, in coordination with governors, will remain in a support role until Congress takes the action necessary to close the loopholes, the White House said.
"The situation at the border has now reached a point of crisis. The lawlessness that continues at our southern border is fundamentally incompatible with the safety, security, and sovereignty of the American people. My administration has no choice but to act," Trump said in his memorandum to the Defence Secretary, Attorney general and the Secretary of Homeland Secretary.
The threat is real the Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters at a White House news conference.
"We continue to see unacceptable levels of illegal drugs, dangerous gang activity, transnational criminal organisations and illegal immigration flow across our border," she said.
This threatens not only the safety of American communities and children, but also the very rule of law, on which, the country was founded. "It's time to act. So let's talk a little bit about that on Thursday," she said.
"In an effort to prevent such a consequence, the president has directed that the Department of Defence and the Department of Homeland Security to work together with our governors to deploy the National Guard to our southwest border to assist the Border Patrol," she said.
Border Patrol recorded 37,393 arrests on the southwest border in March, according to data released by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
In the last 15 months, she said the Trump administration has taken major steps to methodically strengthen border security.
"We began the first new border wall system construction in close to a decade, we modified our asylum system processing to more quickly adjudicate claims and we ended so-called temporary immigration programme," Nielson said.
Ruing that the system rewards bad behaviour, she said it does not punish law breakers.
"It undermines our nation's economic interests. Make no mistake, interdiction without the ability to promptly remove those without legitimate cause is not border security, it is not national security," she asserted.
Next Story
Share it