Immigration activists, federal officials and reporters wrestled Wednesday with interpretations of a White House memo authorizing “a show or use of force (including lethal force, where necessary)” by the troops deployed on the border with Mexico.
The directive specified the purposes for which force could be used as “crowd control, temporary detention and cursory search.” Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis downplayed the likelihood of a serious clash, saying he envisioned the use of troops for “minutes” as a first response to an emergent threat. Enforcement will continue to be the responsibility of customs and Border Patrol officers.
The directive, which was first reported by the Military Times, immediately raised concerns about the role of approximately 5,900 U.S. troops that were rushed to the southwest border last month to confront groups of mostly Central American migrants traveling in caravans through Mexico toward the United States.
In what was viewed by many as a political ploy ahead of the midterm elections, President Trump ordered the troops to the border as a show of force against the migrant caravans, which at that point were still several weeks away from the U.S. Trump described the refugees as an “invasion” and an imminent national security threat.
“The fear-mongering tactic of sending soldiers to the border for a danger that doesn’t exist is now being extended to stoking tensions with threats of lethal force,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of the Texas-based nonprofit Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or RAICES. “This is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, and for what? To rally a base based on racist and xenophobic lies? And to deny people their legal right to asylum?”
Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, called the latest memo “an unnecessary escalation of a political stunt that risks harm to civilians and legal jeopardy for the military.”
“In addition to serious concerns about violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, it’s hard to see how John Kelly, a civilian White House official, has the authority to issue any such order,” she said, referring to initial reports that the directive issued to Mattis had been sent not by President Trump but by White House chief of staff John Kelly. On Wednesday afternoon, however, Newsweek reported that the order issued by Kelly was preceded by a “decision memorandum” signed by the president.
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