(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump signaled he'll take "strong action" Wednesday on border security after earlier promising to deploy the U.S. military to guard the nation's boundary with Mexico and check the flow of unauthorized immigrants.
The vow to act swiftly follows Trump's warning Tuesday to Mexican leaders that he would abandon the North American Free Trade Agreement without assurances of help on securing the border.
"Our Border Laws are very weak while those of Mexico & Canada are very strong," Trump said Wednesday in a Twitter posting. "Congress must change these Obama era, and other, laws NOW! The Democrats stand in our way - they want people to pour into our country unchecked....CRIME! We will be taking strong action today."
Trump was briefed Tuesday on his administration's border strategy by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, Chief of Staff John Kelly and other senior officials, White House Press Secretary Sara Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. The strategy includes mobilizing the National Guard, she said, without elaborating.
A senior White House official also said the Trump administration is crafting legislation to make it harder for refugees to gain asylum in the U.S. and loosen restrictions on undocumented immigrants apprehended near the border.
Trump has previously suggested that he could use money allocated for the U.S. military to construct the border wall for which he has so far been unable to secure congressional funding. Sanders declined to say how Trump would re-direct the funding, which likely would require additional congressional approval.
Since the weekend, Trump has been tweeting and talking about border security following reports that more than 1,000 Central Americans, most from Honduras, are traveling north toward the U.S.'s southern border with the help of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a group that has organized several similar “refugee caravans” in recent years.
Trump has faced pressure from immigration hawks to show that he remains committed to their cause after signing a government spending bill last month that fell far short of the goals he'd set for new border wall construction this year.
The Defense Department has in the past helped the Department of Homeland Security with border security measures, and George W. Bush and Barack Obama both deployed National Guard troops to the border during their presidencies to bolster security. Obama announced in May 2010 that as many as 1,200 national guard troops would help patrol fenced areas of the border, in addition to extra customs and border agents.
American law may also restrict how much the military can do to carry out Trump's wishes. The late-19th century Posse Comitatus Act is viewed as prohibiting the use of the military to execute domestic laws, according to a 2013 report by the Congressional Research Service.
--With assistance from Justin Sink
To contact the reporters on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net, Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Derek Wallbank at dwallbank@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman, Kathleen Hunter
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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