Trump says he plans to order military to guard border

PHOTOGRAPHER: The New York Times

President Donald Trump speaks during a working lunch with the Baltic leaders, at the White House in Washington, April 3, 2018.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he planned to order the military to guard parts of the southern border until he can build a wall and tighten immigration restrictions, proposing a remarkable escalation of his efforts to crack down on migrants entering the country illegally.

Trump, who has been stewing publicly for days about what he characterizes as lax immigration laws and the potential for an influx of Central American migrants to stream into the United States, said he had been discussing with Jim Mattis, the secretary of defense, about resorting to military deployments.

“We have very bad laws for our border, and we are going to be doing some things — I’ve been speaking with Gen. Mattis — we’re going to be doing things militarily,” Trump said at the White House, seated beside the defense secretary at a meeting with visiting leaders of Baltic nations. “Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step. We really haven’t done that before, or certainly not very much before.”

Trump’s comments came after he kicked off his third consecutive day of tweeting about the United States’ “weak” border laws on Tuesday and called on Congress to act, following a new push for legislation to enforce immigration laws for those living illegally in the United States.

He wrote: “The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our “Weak Laws” Border, had better be stopped before it gets there. Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!”

Trump’s Twitter thread on immigration policy started Sunday and, since then, he has consistently threatened to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement. On Tuesday, Trump said NAFTA “is in play,” and repeated his contention that NAFTA was a “cash cow” for other nations.

The president on Tuesday also raised the issue of the “caravans” of people he says are headed to the United States through Mexico. The caravan has been a popular topic on Fox News — the president’s favorite news network.