Trump will use military to secure southern border until wall is built

President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. will use a military unit at the southern border until a wall can be built, calling his plan a "big step."

POTUS made the remarks at a meeting with Baltic leaders. He said that he had discussed the matter with Defense Secretary James Mattis.

"Until we can have a wall and proper security, we're going to be guarding our border with the military," Trump said. "That's a big step, we really haven't done that before, or certainly not very much before."

He also spoke at a subsequent news conference and confirmed the plan. He said the border is unprotected by "our horrible, horrible [two horribles is quite horrible] and very unsafe laws."

[Can laws, per se, be 'unsafe' or are they simply ineffective?]

"We don't have laws, we have catch-and-release," he said, making reference to a fishing term. "You catch and then you immediately release and people come back years later for a court case, except they virtually never come back."

While the president didn't go into specifics, he apparently was strategically responding by a caravan with about 1,300 illegal aliens coming from Central America via Mexico.

The report of the caravan was first reported by Buzzfeed who said that Mexican officials did nothing to stop the flow.

When Trump first heard of the caravan's approach to our border, it angered him. He went on a tweet binge threatening to end the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and cut foreign aid to countries such as Hondura, where a majority of the illegal aliens originate.

"The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexica and heading to our "Weak Laws" Border, had better be stopped before it gets here," he threeted Tuesday. [A "threet" is a threatening tweet.] "Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!" 

Trump said that NAFTA was an "embarrassing" deal and told reporters that he spoke with Mexican officials on Monday: "I hope you're going to tell that caravan not to get up to the border." He added that he believes the caravan was being broken up as a result. In other words, that the large mass of people broke up into smaller groups.

The Pentagon was falling all over itself trying to come up with a response to Trump's statement about the military guarding the border. But Fox News reported that they received a memo and discussed the military option with officials, and said that one area where the Pentagon could contribute right away is the Air Force's Barry Goldwater live-fire range. It shares a 35-mile border with Mexico in southern Arizona.

Currently, the Defense Department is helping provide some border security with U.S. Navy vessels patrolling the waters to seize drugs, and missions involving over 100 personnel from the U.S. northern command--this includes 8 aircraft and a drone.



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