Trump Threatens to 'Call Up U.S. Military' to Close Southern Border

President Donald Trump has threatened to "call up" the United States Military to close the country's southern border to stop the flow of criminals into America.

In a series of tweets Thursday morning, Trump criticized Democrats for wanting open borders and "existing weak laws" regarding immigration. The President claims that "many criminals" are among the large amounts of people from countries like Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who are entering the U.S. through Mexico.

"In addition to stopping all payments to these countries, which seem to have almost no control over their population, I must, in the strongest of terms, ask Mexico to stop this onslaught - and if unable to do so I will call up the U.S. Military and CLOSE OUR SOUTHERN BORDER!" Trump said in a tweet.  (Komo 4 News, October 18, 2018)
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In a report from the Obama Whitehouse (November 17, 2015) we read: Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) remain the greatest criminal drug threat to the United States. These Mexican poly-drug organizations traffic heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana throughout the United States using established transportation routes and distribution networks. They control drug trafficking across the Southwest border and are seeking to expand their share of U.S. illicit drug markets, particularly for heroin. U.S. national-level gangs and neighborhood gangs continue to form relationships with Mexican TCOs to increase gang profits through drug distribution and transportation, for the enforcement of drug payments, and for protection of drug transportation corridors from use by rival gangs. Many gangs rely on Mexican TCOs as their primary drug supplier, and Mexican TCOs depend on street-level gangs that have a pre-existing customer base for drug distribution.

The 2011 National Drug Threat Assessment stated: The primary gateway for illicit drug smuggling to the United States is the Southwest Border. Smugglers under the direction of Mexican traffickers move most of the cocaine, heroin, foreign-produced marijuana, and foreign-produced methamphetamine available in this country through, between, and around land border crossings in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. Traffickers use every other avenue imaginable - air, sea, and the U.S. - Canada border - to smuggle drugs into the United States, but the volume moved across the U.S.–Mexico border significantly exceeds that moved through all other routes combined.

And just this month October 2018, Uttam Dhillon, the acting director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, warns that Mexican drug cartels pose the “biggest” threat to the national security and health of U.S. citizens. The DEA official said Mexican cartels are responsible for distributing a vast majority of deadly synthetic drugs like methamphetamines and fentanyl that are coming across the southern U.S. border.

So, should the U.S. military be stationed on the southern border? Should armed troops interdict those entering the United States illegally?

Operating in Hostile and Non-Permissive Environments:

A Survival and Resource Guide for Those Who Go in Harm’s Way

 

Military personnel deployed to a combat area, their supporting contractors overseas, government civilian employees overseas, non-government organizations (NGOs), journalists working on international stories, businesses attempting to establish a foothold in developing countries, and individual travelers to remote areas of the world can all find themselves in hostile and non-permissive environments. This guide covers a broad range of subjects that are intended to aid individuals, living and working in dangerous areas, in being safer in their daily lives and in being better able to protect themselves and survive in case of an emergency, disaster, or hostile action.