President Donald Trump’s top national security advisers discussed the possibility of increased United States military involvement in the border mission during their visit at the White House Tuesday night. According to NBC News , the discussion included talk of using the military to create tent city detention camps for migrants attempting to cross the southern border.
But the possibility isn’t likely to happen, as the U.S.’s Posse Comitatus Act prohibits its military from direct interaction with migrants, which would make it impossible for them to run camps legally. The same law has proved to be a thorn in Trump’s side in the past as he attempted to use active-duty troops to crack down on immigration.
The Trump administration’s consideration of using the military for migrant detention camps is reportedly for convenience — a U.S. border patrol official speaking anonymously said that the move would allow for a faster production process than using private contractors.
“The importance of DOD is that they are able to mobilize quickly because we face an immediate crisis now.”
The same official claims that 253 Central Americans — mostly families — were stopped in Santa Teresa, which leaves them in the hands of border patrol agents. Often, this creates trouble as they must process them, find shelter, and provide them with medical care. He also said he was unaware of the potential plan to use the military to run migrant detention facilities.
Top Trump advisers met at the White House this week to talk about increasing military involvement at the border and discussing whether the military could legally build and run detention camps for migrants. https://t.co/UdtKEjBKtK
— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) April 12, 2019
Per CNN , Trump used a Texas visit on Wednesday to speak about upping the number of U.S. troops on the border mission.
“I’m going to have to call up more military. Our military, don’t forget, can’t act like a military would act. Because if they got a little rough, everybody would go crazy…. Our military can’t act like they would normally act…. They have all these horrible laws that the Democrats won’t change. They will not change them.”
Trump’s comments come following the revelation by the Department of Homeland Security that last month set the record for the number of Border Patrol apprehensions at the southern border since 2008.
As The Inquisitr reported, Trump recently asked Jared Kushner to develop a legal immigration effort to increase low- and high-skilled workers. The proposal has been in development since January and will reportedly be submitted to Congress by the summer. As of now, it is a four-person White House group led by Kushner. Immigrant activists are not happy with the news, as they believe it could harm Trump in his mission to crack down on immigration per his campaign promise.
