Trump Sends 5,200 troops to U.S.-Mexico Borders to Fight off “Invasion”

President Trump ordered the U.S. military to send additional 5,200 troops to the southern border under “Operation Faithful Patriot” as a reaction to the Central American migrant caravan.

The Pentagon has gathered military police, pilots, engineers, cooks, planners and medical personnel from around the country—from Fort Bragg in North Carolina to Lewis McChord in Washington. They will reach their posts in California, South Texas and Arizona in less than a week. More than 800 troop members are already heading to Texas. The rest will soon be on their way.

These new troops mark a significant escalation of the U.S. response to the ongoing border conflict. The sheer speed and size of the deployment exceed those of all U.S. military responses since the Haitian earthquake in 2010.

Plus the existing 2,000 National Guard on the U.S.-Mexico borders, the number of U.S. military members there will surpass the U.S. deployment in Syria and Iraq combined. It seems that the administration believes immigrants to present a more serious threat to national security than ISIS.

However, although the mission is to deter the migrant caravan, under the Posse Comitatus Act, American personnel is not allowed to enforce law outside the country. The troops will therefore only serve supporting duties and cannot directly confront the migrants.

“Our first level of effort will be to harden the points of entry and address key gaps in areas around the points of entry,” said Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, commander of the U.S. Northern Command.

For weeks President Trump has attempted to sway public opinion and get the nation ready for this dramatic deployment.

In a theatrical tweet on Monday morning, Trump claimed that the caravan was carrying “many gang members and some very bad people” while providing no evidence for the assertion. He also portrayed migrants escaping poverty and violence of their home countries as enemies of the United States: “This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!”

With the midterm elections only one week away, critics believe Trump is exploiting the border crisis to mobilize Republican supporters. Republican candidates in Arizona, California and Texas all face tight races. The use of active-duty troops could potentially sway voters in these states.

There is also worry that Trump’s action will distract the U.S. military from real conflicts abroad.

“When Donald Trump deploys troops for a nonexistent threat, that means troops are not training or preparing for the fights that could be on the horizon, for legitimate threats,” said Will Fischer from pro-Democratic group VoteVets. “This is a campaign ploy.”

Featured image via Joshua Lott/Reuters