MSN by Molly Hennessy-Fiske 10/31/2018
MCALLEN, Texas — Here in the Border Patrol's busiest region, agents and military officials are preparing for the arrival in coming days and weeks of 800 U.S. troops and an immigrant caravan of thousands.
An emergency operations center has been activated at U.S. Customs and Border Protection Rio Grande Valley headquarters in Edinburg for what commanders called a "mass migration event." Military planners have arrived in the valley this week, and are expected to meet with Border Patrol, state troopers, game wardens and other law enforcement on Monday. Troops are gathering equipment and preparing to deploy to the valley from Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
President Donald Trump announced earlier this week he is deploying a total of 5,200 troops to the border in Arizona, California and Texas to help stop the caravan of Central American immigrants heading north from Honduras through Mexico. He later said that the number of troops could go as high as 15,000 if he deems it necessary, a move critics call pre-election pandering to his supporters who fear an influx of asylum seekers and others seeking to cross the border illegally.
"Our military is being mobilized at the Southern Border," Trump tweeted Wednesday. "Many more troops coming. We will NOT let these Caravans, which are also made up of some very bad thugs and gang members, into the U.S. Our Border is sacred, must come in legally. TURN AROUND!"
On Wednesday, the Border Patrol referred questions about military preparations and tracking the caravan to Homeland Security headquarters and the Pentagon. But Rio Grande Valley Acting Sector Chief Raul Ortiz discussed his efforts during a ride-along.
"My plan is to have agents on the front line as much as possible," he said.
Border Patrol agents in riot gear have been training at a border bridge in Brownsville. Commanders are prepared to shore up border crossing with concertina wire and call in another 800 agents, including a specially trained national response team, once the caravan of several thousand immigrants, now on foot in southern Mexico, approaches.
The Border Patrol is already coping with a surge of illegal crossings, particularly by families, most of whom cross through the Rio Grande Valley. This month, agents have caught an average of 641 immigrants crossing illegally each day, including 373 family members and 73 unaccompanied minors, according to Ortiz. Last week, their busiest week this year, agents caught 5,600 people, he said.
More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/border-patrol-prepares-for-arrival-of-us-troops-migrant-caravan/ar-BBPbPxg
