The US military can send up to 1,000 soldiers to the Mexican border

The US military is not allowed to enforce the law on US soil except express authorization of the Congress. (Reuters)

The administration of President Donald Trump could send up to 1,000 troops on active service to the US-Mexico border, US officials said on Thursday as Trump settled the immigration problem underground before the parliamentary elections. Trump's threat was triggered by the advance of a caravan of Central American migrants crossing Mexico and heading for the United States. "I am leaving the army for this national emergency. They will be arrested! ", Writes Trump on Twitter.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked the Pentagon to send forces to the border as part of a preliminary request requiring the deployment of 800-to-1 000 soldiers on active duty, two of whom US officials said, expressing themselves under the guise of anonymity.

The US military is forbidden to enforce the law by civilians on US soil, unless expressly authorized by Congress.While Trump's language hinted that the military could be directly involved in preventing migrants from entering the US, one official said the troops were not would only engage in logistics and infrastructure services, such as tents, not law enforcement activities.There are currently 2,100 national guards – reserve troops – along l at the border, but DHS demand could lead to the first large-scale deployment of US military forces on active duty to support the Trump border protection mission.

The Pentagon said that he was working. with DHS to "determine the specifics of our support" at the Customs and Border Protection Agency, which is part of the DHS. Trump and his Republican compatriots have sought to make caravan and immigration major issues before the mid-term elections of November 6, during which the party will try to keep control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

LEAKAGE OF VIOLENCE

Fleeing the violence, poverty and corruption of the government in their home country, the caravan of migrants continued Thursday its slow advance towards the distant frontier of the American territory. Men, women and children left at the dawn of the city of Mapastepec, in the state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico. A local official said 5,300 migrants had gathered in the city on Wednesday night. As the sun began to burn, they walked up to 48 km from the city of Pijijiapan, where they rested on blankets and tarpaulins spread out in the main park.

A group of Mexican policemen said that he was responsible for the expulsion of migrants. sat with immigration officials, tried to report rides for some. Meanwhile, further south of Guatemala, a second caravan of more than 1,000 people formed on Monday but has since split into small groups, also pushing north. Lucrecia Oliva, a worker at a migrant shelter in the Guatemalan capital, said 400 migrants arrived in small clusters on Wednesday. On Thursday afternoon, about 60 Honduran migrants were sitting in the street, eating offered food and resting.

& # 39; GO BACK & # 39;

"For those who are in the caravan, we do not let people change to the United States illegally. Go back to your country and if you wish, ask for citizenship as do millions of others! , Wrote Trump on Twitter. "We think it's not human," said Carlos Fernandez, a 39-year-old bricklayer, speaking by phone from the border between Guatemala and Mexico, after he said. be returned last Friday in the city of San Pedro Sula, a city devastated by crime.

"If someone emigrates to the United States, it's to work, and working is not a crime," he said. During the 2016 presidential race, Trump is committed to building a wall along Mexico's southern border with the United States. However, funding for his signing campaign promise was slow to materialize, even though his party controlled Congress.

In April, frustrated by the lack of progress on the wall, Trump ordered the National Guard to help secure the border. Adam Isacson, head of the Washington office in Latin America, a migrant rights group, expressed his reservations about the potential deployment.

"Even though it's a short-term deployment, it's a step closer to militarizing our border," Isacson added that 40% of people apprehended at the border were children and families.