ABC News By Luis Martinez and Elizabeth McLaughlin Nov 5, 2018
By the end of Monday there will be 5,200 active duty service members serving along the border in what is officially a support mission to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), but on the eve of the mid-term election President Trump continues to play the deployment as a campaign issue.
"I noticed all that beautiful barbed wire going up today," Trump said at a Montana campaign rally on Sunday. "Barbed wire used properly can be a beautiful sight."
The president was referring to active duty soldiers placing concertina wire near a Texas border crossing over the weekend. The move was in line with the support mission to Customs and Border Protection being provided by U.S. Northern Command.
But on Monday Trump made it sound as if the active-duty troops assigned to Operation Faithful Patriot would play a more visible role.
"Barbed wire looks like it's going to be very effective, too, with soldiers standing in front of it," Trump told a campaign rally in Cleveland.
But Operation Faithful Patriot is intended to be a mission where the active duty troops are only to provide support for CBP since they are forbidden by federal law to carry out law enforcement duties.
Gen. Joseph Dunford restated the mission's intent in remarks at Duke University on Monday evening.
"There is no plan for U.S. military forces to be involved in the actual mission of denying people entry to the United States," said Dunford. "There is no plan for the soldiers to come in contact with immigrants or to reinforce the Department of Homeland Security as they are conducting their mission. We are providing enabling capability."
To that end, engineering and construction units will build vehicle barriers and fencing along the points of entry along the border, as well as build temporary housing for CBP personnel being sent to the border, Helicopter units are also being deployed to transport CBP personnel to hard to reach border areas, officials said.
A Pentagon spokesman said Monday that the laying of concertina wire was in line with the mission to help CBP "plug gaps" at ports of entry along the border.
More:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/election-eve-trump-continues-play-militarys-role-border/story?id=58980671
