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The Trump administration's plan to deploy thousands of troops to the US border has surprised officials, with many high-ranking Defense Department officers saying they believed the decision was politically motivated and wasted money , said many sources at the Pentagon knowing the directive. Newsweek.
Four sources directly knowing how the troop deployment plans – the loyal patriot operation – met, said the initial directive to send troops to the border came directly from the office of the president, known in Pentagon jargon as the national command authority, which would mean President Donald Trump or Defense Secretary James Mattis.
The sources added that even though Mattis, a former US Navy general, had seen him delegate the power of the operation, he would still have had to obtain permission from the commander-in-chief. But ultimately, the decision to move forward with the deployment of the southern border was unexpected by military planners.
Talk to Newsweek under the guise of anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to the media, the four US military sources said the Pentagon's senior officials had viewed the deployment as a considerable waste of taxpayers' money, but also as going against the military readiness, a minority praised the brutal crackdown of the Trump administration against immigration.
Asked on Wednesday that the number of US troops at the border was a political coup, Mattis said, "The support we provide to the Department of Homeland Security is concrete support based on the request of the Commissioner of Customs and Security. Borders police. We do not do stunts in this department. "
Pentagon officials have not responded to Newsweek requests for comments.
Many senior staff members seemed to agree that the decision to deploy thousands of soldiers to the border was a politically motivated tactic, with the Trump administration ordering deployment less than a week before the mid-term elections on November 6, sources said.
"There is no practical or tactical reason for this to happen," said one source. Newsweek.
Patti Bielling / Operation Faithful Patriot
The remarks were heard as the president dubbed his immigration rhetoric Thursday, while he was talking with reporters in the Roosevelt Hall of the White House.
"Anyone who throws rocks, stones, as in Mexico and the Mexican army, to the Mexican police, where they would seriously hurt the police and the soldiers of Mexico, we will consider this as a firearm," said Trump. "We will not endure this, they want to throw stones at our armed forces, our forces are fighting back, and I told them to consider this a rifle."
The four sources of the Pentagon addressing Newsweek Moments after Trump's conclusion, he stated that the members of the services deployed at the southern border had not received credible information about the "bad actors" and that he was not there. had no change in the rules of engagement allowing service members to treat stones as firearms.
Trump had previously described the expected arrival of caravans from "the invasion of our country". The president also said that the caravan contained terrorist cells and that the Democrats organized and distributed money to the migrants on the move.
The president's critics called the deployment of theatrical troops intended to gather Republican support just days before the mid-term elections.
Despite the president's claims that the caravans were "made up of very bad thugs and gang members," documents obtained by Newsweek showed that intelligence officials did not anticipate strong involvement of criminal gangs – or terrorist infiltration – as the caravan continued to follow its planned route.
The documents also showed that the Trump administration had predicted that only a "small percentage" of migrants traveling with caravans bound for the United States would travel to the border on the basis of historical trends. The assessment revealed that only about 20% of the 7,000 migrants, 1,500 people traveling with the caravan, would reach the border.
To put this in perspective, this means that there would be about 3.5 deployed military members for each migrant.
Currently, there are at least four caravans from Central America heading to the US border, the first group leaving San Pedro Sula, Honduras, on October 13. By Thursday, the main group has grown to 7,000 people. before falling to about 4,000, had reached the city of Juchitan, in southern Mexico.
Asylum seekers traveling with the caravan still had about 875 kilometers to travel to before reaching the nearest US port of entry in McAllen, Texas.
Their trip could however more than double if they chose to follow the same route as the previous caravan of asylum seekers who made the trip to the US border in April: they traveled a lot longer until 39 In Tijuana, in the far northwest of Mexico, apply for asylum at the San Ysidro entrance port in San Diego, California.
Commanders were briefed on Saturday's presentation, which contained US Government guidelines for subordinate commands in charge of press relations during the inter-agency operation led by the Department of Homeland Security. , suggesting that government officials had planned that his official statement on military deployment -down trained. "
This means that "many of these issues will be dealt with in Washington and by the Pentagon," said David Lapan, former spokesman for Homeland Security under the Trump administration and former ex-US sailor. Newsweek. "Recognizing all the political and political implications, they will want individual members of the service to stay out of those things."
The Defense Department will make a distinction between uniformed military and "members of the administration or those who hold political positions in the Pentagon and can talk about political issues," added Lapan.
The North American Army documents show that Pentagon officials were well aware of the political effect that the deployment of thousands of US forces to the southern border could have on the upcoming mid-term elections in November, well before that the Trump administration announces the deployment.
The slides of the presentation provided insight into the role that the November elections could play in the conduct of caravan arrival stories in an "information environment analysis" conducted by North American command operations, the Pentagon unit overseeing the deployment of the southern border.
"The mid-term elections of 06 NOV will be the driving force behind conflicting rhetoric and will reinforce EI's competitive and combative nature," said a slide titled "Public Affairs."
The president insisted that his demonstration of military strength had little to do with next week's elections. "I say it well before the elections[s], Said Trump. "I said it before going to the elections, we must have strong borders, if we do not have strong borders, we do not have a country."
The public affairs papers then invite officials to emphasize the collaborative nature of inter-agency deployment and how it will avoid potential legal problems.
The Department of Defense was asked to direct all communications coordination to the Department of Homeland Security by ordering public affairs officials to emphasize the temporary nature of the mission to members of the press.
"From a military point of view, the moment or the reason for a mission is out of our control. We receive an order from the commander-in-chief and we carry out that mission when they ask us. If you're wondering why you're doing it, you're not talking about it because it's not you, it's the White House, "said Lapan.
He added, "This is a delicate situation for members of the military service, given how politically difficult it is at the moment. I do not know why decision makers are doing this now or how they will answer these questions. I have not yet seen any political decision maker answer the question of why he is doing it now and whether it is mid-term or not. "
Trump has firmly defended his government's decision to send up to 15,000 troops to the border, telling ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl to White House journalists Jonathan Karl that the United States had to "put up a wall of people" at the border for the arrival of the caravans. .
The order of operation of the North American Army used to coordinate tasks at the southern border paints an alarming picture of the situation in that country, which seems to echo Trump's sentiments: "CURRENT SITUATION. US SECURITY IS IMPERILED BY A DRASTIC ENERGY OF ILLEGAL DRUGS, HAZARDOUS GANG ACTIVITY AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION OF GREATER THREATS. THE RULE OF LAW IS CARRIED OUT. THE SITUATION AT THE BORDER HAS BEEN REACHED OF A POINT OF CRISIS AND POTUS TAKEN MEASURES TO SECURE OUR FRONTIERS. DOD will support the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). "
Brad Moss, a national security lawyer based in Washington, DC, said Newsweek: "The deployment of thousands of active duty personnel at the border remains a decision whose motives or intentions are unclear …[but] under the federal law, the military is limited in its tasks, particularly with respect to the application of the law in the country.
"While they have the power to provide technical and intelligence assistance to local law enforcement and DHS personnel, they are prohibited from dealing directly with the seizure and detention of any immigrant without papers from the "caravan" that reaches the US border.
Moss went on to say, "This is not a field of different interpretations. Under the Posse Comitatus Act, it is strictly forbidden for the military to carry out national policing duties, except with the express authorization of the Congress or the President's decision on the existence of an emergency.
The Posse Comitatus Act is a long-standing federal law that limits the government's ability to use the US military as a police force; however, the language contained in the documents provides an overview of the legal authorizations for deploying US troops in the country.
The president maintains an "inherent authority" exception, according to the documents. Trump could use these executive powers to restore order in extraordinary circumstances, even if a state governor objected to the president exercising his authority.
Trump had initially pledged to send up to 5,200 troops to the southern border in anticipation of several caravans from Central America heading for the US border, but the president more than doubled that figure Wednesday, stating that he could send up to 15,000 soldiers. troops at multiple entry points on the southwestern borders.
The rise of troops aligned with Newsweek A report released on Monday reveals that government documents have shown that the Pentagon has sent about 7,000 troops awaiting deployment to the southern border within 24 hours. A Defense Department official said Newsweek he did not believe that the number of American forces would exceed the figure of 15,000 announced by Trump.
In a presentation given to commanders on Saturday, a public affairs slide contained a screenshot of Twitter's verified account of Dana White, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson. The date stamp indicated that the tweet had been posted on the same Saturday as the briefing.
"@DeptofDefense is in favor of @DHSgov request for support to the @CBP. #SecDef The order signed by Mattis does not specify the number of soldiers who will support this mission. Media reports that 800 or 1,000 soldiers are deployed are inaccurate. "
Four sources said Newsweek It was true that the order signed by Mattis did not indicate the number of soldiers when he had signed the directive last Friday, but the operational planners of the Ministry of Defense knew that the number of soldiers would pass to more than 14,000 before White's tweet of October 27th.
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