Just 48 hours after President Donald Trump had now-former Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen fired Trump administration officials discussed a plan to send more active-duty U.S. Military troops to the border, this time to build and operate desert camps to house migrants.
“Top Trump advisers met at the White House Tuesday to talk about increasing military involvement at the border, including building tent cities for migrants,” NBC News reports.
During that meeting several of President Trump’s top national security advisers “also discussed whether the U.S. military could legally run the camps once the migrants are housed there,” NBC News notes, calling it “a move the three officials said was very unlikely since U.S. law prohibits the military from directly interacting with migrants. The law has been a major limitation for Trump, who wants to engage troops in his mission to get tougher on immigration.”
Last year, before the November election, President Trump ordered troops to the Southern border, ostensibly to deal with the migrant caravans he touted day and night for weeks, until the midterm elections were over.
There remain thousands of troops at the border. Their main job now is repairing barbed wire fences (photo, top). The cost to taxpayers is unknown, as is the cost to their families.
Photo: U.S. Marines place concertina wire at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry in California on Nov. 11, 2018.
Image by US DoD/Staff Sgt. Rubin J. Tan via Flickr