Trump defends border deployment amid fresh scrutiny
Trump on Saturday defended his decision to order thousands of active-duty troops to the nation's southern border amid increasing scrutiny from lawmakers demanding answers on the deployment.
Top military officials confirmed this week that no active-duty troops are likely to be added to the roughly 5,800 already at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump said Saturday that the troops will be there "as long as necessary."
"They build great fencing, they built a very powerful fence,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House before leaving for a trip to California on Saturday. “The fence is fully manned, nobody gets through."
Members of both parties criticized Trump’s decision to send the troops to the border ahead of the Nov. 6 midterm elections. Trump argued the troops were necessary to bolster border enforcement amid an approaching migrant caravan.
But lawmakers argue that the shrinking caravan of several thousand Central American asylum-seekers is still weeks away from potentially arriving at the U.S. border, and there is no clear objective or cost estimate for troops deployed there.
“I think it’s unfortunate that we have the soldiers [at the border],” retiring Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), a vocal critic of Trump, said Wednesday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe.”
“You can’t call it anything but a stunt here, and it’s unfortunate that they’re going to be away from family during the holidays coming up, and we just don’t know what really for," he added.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/417266-trump-defends-border-deployment-amid-fresh-scrutiny
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