This past weekend, U.S. Customs and Border Protection released a press release that would have you imagine our national guard and CBP are preparing for war.
The release details how more than 5,000 U.S. military troops have made their way to our southern U.S.-Mexico border to assist CBP in preparing and receiving the current migrant caravan making its way northward to our border from Central America.
The release quotes Michael Hyatt, who according to the release, serves as the deputy incident commander for CBP’s emergent operations in Washington, D.C. According to Hyatt, even though CBP is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, the migrant caravan “is going to be challenging for CBP” and therefore are asking for assistance from the Department of Defense.
Recently, Newsweek reported that the caravan currently consist of around 4,500 people who are currently setting camp in Mexico City as they receive humanitarian aid from the Mexican government and people.
According to an ACLU article, in 2018 CBP processed 1.1 million fewer people arriving at our southern border thant in the year 2000, and at the time the agency had less than half the budget and had at least 10,000 fewer officers.
The reality is that there is no apparent reason for the increased militarization of our borers, other than our president believing his own false and racist rhetoric that these people are highly dangerous criminals, and extreme unproven believes like saying that middle eastern terrorist are utilizing the caravan to gain entrance into our country.
It sounds ridiculous,right? Yet according to the release troops have been laying concertina wire and placing vehicle barriers at our borders. It is a series of political stunts that our southern border communities are paying the price for with the militarization of their communities.
Here in New Mexico our new Governor-elect, Michelle Lujan Grisham, has expressed worry for the families that are making their way to our borders through the caravan.
“I worry about the women and children in that caravan,” Lujan Grisham told the Associated Press.
According to the AP, Lujan Grisham finds lack of credibility in the Trump administration’s portrayal of the caravan and its dangers to our national security.
“If I can’t get information in January that shifts my thinking, particularly with assignments of troops on the border, I would likely reconsider the National Guard being at the border,” Lujan Grisham told AP.
Previously, Susana Martinez, our state’s current governor, sent less than 200 troops to the border at Trump’s request even before Trump’s additional federal deployment of the more than 5,000 troops.
What we need is to demilitarize our borders ASAP.
The people in the caravan are unarmed, exhausted, only seeking to better their situations for them and their families, and not a dangerous threat to our national security that requires extensive military defense.