Operation Faithful Patriot

Trump tweeted about the approaching caravan of Central American families on Monday: 

"This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!"

He is deploying over 5,200 troops to the border to join the already 2,100 National Guard members at the border, sent after a previous request by Trump in April. Gen O'Shaughnessy said the troops would be deployed by the end of the week with weapons, helicopters, aeroplanes, barriers and miles of razor wire to support border patrol agents. The total military deployment means the number of troops at the south-western border will exceed the US troops currently in Syria and Iraq, the Wall Street Journal notes.

There is a legal obligation under international law to hear asylum claims from migrants who have arrived in the US if they say they fear violence in their home countries. Those seeking asylum must be fleeing due to a serious fear of persecution in their home country. Under international law, these are considered refugees. If an asylum seeker enters the US illegally, they are still entitled to a hearing of their claim.  Economic migrants are those seeking a better quality of life - and even if they are fleeing devastating poverty, they are not considered refugees and do not have the same protections.

Trump is not the first president to send troops to the border with Mexico. Obama sent some 1,200 National Guard soldiers to guard the boundary, while  George W Bush deployed about 6,000 troops to help Border Patrol. Both deployments lasted for about a year.

The American Civil Liberties Union condemned the latest move as political opportunism. Shaw Drake, policy counsel at its rights centre in El Paso, Texas, said: “President Trump has chosen just before midterm elections to force the military into furthering his anti-immigrant agenda of fear and division. But this harmful action is nothing more than Trump’s latest aggression against immigrant families with children who seek our protection. These migrants need water, diapers and basic necessities – not an army division.” Drake added: “Sending active military forces to our southern border is not only a huge waste of taxpayer money, but an unnecessary course of action that will further terrorize and militarize our border communities. Military personnel are legally prohibited from engaging in immigration enforcement, and there is no emergency or cost-benefit analysis to justify this sudden deployment.”