As many as 3,000 troops will be deployed along the U.S. border with Mexico until Sept. 30, 2022, stretching the military’s mission there into a fourth year, the chief Pentagon spokesman said Tuesday.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved a request to extend the mission that supports the Department of Homeland Security along the southwest border, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters. Austin signed the request June 23, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Austin authorized up to 3,000 troops to serve on the mission, which is down from the 4,000 approved to serve at the southwest border for fiscal 2021, Kirby said. Deployments will continue to be staffed primarily by National Guard troops working in a federal status under the command and control of U.S. Northern Command, the defense official said.

About 3,800 troops are deployed now to the southwest border in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents. The troops are a mix of active-duty service members and National Guard troops from nearly two dozen states. Their work includes helping to identify, monitor and analyze patterns of unauthorized entry and alert Border Patrol agents.

The Defense Department has spent more than $840 million on the mission so far, according to a February report from the Government Accountability Office.

Former President Donald Trump first ordered National Guard troops to the southern border in April 2018 and added active-duty personnel to the mission about six months later.

When President Joe Biden took office in January, he ended construction of a physical border wall initiated by Trump but he has kept the troops in place.

Following the extension of the mission, governors in Ohio and North Dakota announced approval to send Guard troops on the federal deployment.

These federal missions are separate from state-level missions ongoing in Arizona and Texas, where Republican governors disagree with the way that the Biden administration is handling border security.

Both states have activated hundreds of Guard members to serve at the border in support of state law enforcement. South Dakota and Arkansas announced last month plans to deploy Guard troops to support Texas’ state-led mission.

Source: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2021-07-06/us-mexico-border-troops-immigration-crisis-2071343.html

The post Deployment of US troops along US-Mexico border will stretch into a fourth year, Pentagon announces first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

• Protests have spread to smaller communities in places like North Dakota and Nebraska
• The National Guard has been activated in 15 states and in Washington DC
• Donald Trump and Joe Biden have both condemned the violence

Looters have overrun streets in Washington DC and New York City and fires have been ignited near the White House as the US experienced its sixth night of violence fuelled by the killings of black people at the hands of police.

On Sunday, nearly a week after unarmed black man George Floyd died in custody as an officer pressed a knee into his neck, protests sprang up from Boston to San Francisco.

Almost 62,000 National Guard soldiers have now been deployed across 24 states, to help authorities control civil unrest as well as deal with the ongoing coronavirus crisis and bushfires.

There have been strict curfews imposed in 40 cities and public transport systems have been shut down, but the restrictions have been largely ignored and many places have again erupted into unrest.

In some cities on Sunday night, thieves smashed their way into stores and ran off with as much as they could carry, leaving shop owners, many of them just ramping up their business again after coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, to clean up their shattered storefronts.

In others, police tried to calm tensions by kneeling in solidarity with demonstrators while still maintaining a strong presence for security.

Earlier in the day, a truck driver drove at a crowd of demonstrators in Minneapolis.

At least 4,400 people have been arrested across the country during the days of protests, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press.

Thousands of law enforcement officers and National Guard members have faced off with protesters in Minneapolis. (AP: Julio Cortez)

Protesters start fires near White House

Looting was rampant in downtown Washington DC and elsewhere in the city as protests turned violent.

Police clashed with protesters near the White House, firing tear gas and stun grenades as fires burned nearby and looters moved through the city.

Protesters broke into a bank branch and empty boxes could be seen scattered on the sidewalk outside a jewelry store.

After protesters started looting a coffee shop, someone in the crowd yelled: “What are you looting a coffee shop for? You’re messing up the whole message.”

An hour before the 11:00 pm curfew in Washington DC, police fired a major barrage of tear gas and stun grenades into a crowd of more than 1,000 people, largely clearing Lafayette Park across the street from the White House and scattering protesters into the street.

Protesters piled up road signs and plastic barriers and lit a raging fire in the middle of H Street.

Some pulled an American flag from a nearby building and threw it into the blaze. Others added branches pulled from trees.

A building in the park that had bathrooms and a maintenance office was engulfed in flames.

A separate protest also broke out in the city’s northwest.

The entire Washington DC National Guard has been called in to help with the response to protests outside the White House and elsewhere in the nation’s capital.

Police officers hospitalized in Boston after peaceful afternoon escalates

A Sunday afternoon of mostly peaceful protests in Boston broke at nightfall when protesters clashed with officers, throwing rocks, breaking into several stores, and lighting a police vehicle on fire.

Boston police said at least 40 people had been arrested as of 3:00 am on Monday (local time).

Police said seven officers had been hospitalized and 21 police cruisers were damaged.

Republican Governor Charlie Baker called the violence “criminal and cowardly” in a tweet.

The destruction was a stark contrast to the several protests earlier on Sunday that featured thousands of demonstrations marching peacefully.

“They keep killing our people. I’m so sick and tired of it,” said Mahira Louis, 15, who was at a Boston protest with her mother on Sunday, leading chants of “George Floyd, say his name.”

California orders state buildings in city centers to be closed on Monday

The state Department of Human Resources has sent a directive to close all California state buildings “with offices in downtown city areas” on Monday.

The sweeping mandate covers everything from the Department of Motor Vehicles offices to those that license workers and provide health care.

The directive was sent on Sunday evening but it was left up to officials at individual agencies to determine which buildings should be closed.

A state Department of Justice memo sent to employees said Attorney-General offices in Sacramento, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego would be closed, though employees who can work from home should do so.

“Staff assigned to these offices should not report to work for any reason,” the memo said.

The Mayor of New York City’s daughter was among nearly 790 people arrested in the city since the start of the protests.

A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter told The Associated Press Chiara de Blasio, 25, was arrested on Saturday night.

An arrest report obtained by The New York Post said she had refused to leave a Manhattan street ordered to be cleared by officers because people were throwing things.

Chiara de Blasio, who is black, was later given a court summons and released.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is white, did not mention the arrest in his Sunday press briefing.

At least five burned-out NYPD vehicles that remained near Manhattan’s Union Square were towed on Sunday.

People walked around broken glass on the street to take pictures. But for hours, Sunday’s protests were calm.

“Compared to how things turned out yesterday, this is a lot better. This is exactly how things should be,” said Domenic Manning, who spoke at a rally in Union Square.

“If you want to get your point across, this is the way to do it. Vandalizing companies and stores, that’s not the way to do it.”

Resident Ken Kidd said protesters and police tried to remain peaceful at the start before the stress of a city heavily hit by the coronavirus came out.

“I think a community can only say ‘enough’ so many times and the words aren’t heard so then they got to take action and that’s what happened last night,” Mr. Kidd said.

During the past few days, several news crews attempting to cover protests have been shot with rubber bullets and tear gas and/or arrested.

The arrest of CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his camera operator was the first to make headlines but police in other cities have also moved on other news crews.

Jimenez, who is black, was covering developments in Minneapolis and had just shown a protester being arrested when about half a dozen white police officers surrounded him.

“We can move back to where you like,” Jimenez told the officers wearing gas masks and face shields, before explaining live on air that he and his crew were members of the press.

“We’re getting out of your way.”

More than 10,000 National Guard members expected to be deployed

Curfews had been imposed around the country, including in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.

About 5,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen were activated in 15 states and Washington, DC.

In Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, police, state troopers and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8:00 pm curfew took effect on Saturday to break up demonstrations.

On Sunday, in a display of force, long lines of state patrolmen and National Guard soldiers lined up in front of the Capitol, with perhaps a dozen military-style armored vehicles behind them.

That came after three days in which police largely avoided engaging protesters, and after the state poured more than 4,000 National Guard troops into Minneapolis.

President Donald Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics, commending the National Guard deployment in Minneapolis and declaring “No games!”

He said police in New York City “must be allowed to do their job!”

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned the violence as he continued to express common cause with those demonstrating after Mr. Floyd’s death.

“The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest,” Mr. Biden said in a late-night statement.

Truck drives at crowd on freeway

A truck driver was arrested on Sunday afternoon after appearing to drive at a crowd of protesters on a Minneapolis freeway.

Officials in Minnesota said no protesters were hit when the semi-trailer drove into a crowd demonstrating on a freeway near the city center.

The Minnesota State Patrol said the action appeared to be deliberate.

TV footage showed protesters swarming the truck, and then law enforcement quickly moving in.

The driver was taken to hospital but released into police custody shortly afterward.

Trump says Antifa will be designated a terrorist group

Mr. Trump blamed left-wing groups for causing the riots.

He said anarchists and militant anti-fascists under the umbrella term Antifa were to blame for riots that formed off the back of largely peaceful protests.

Though the group, whose followers organize resistance to white supremacists, is not an official organization, Mr. Trump said Antifa would be designated as a terrorist group.

Attorney-General William Barr also pointed a finger at “far-left extremist” groups.

Police chiefs and politicians around the country accused outsiders of coming in and causing the problems.

National security adviser Robert O’Brien said there was no systemic racism in police forces in the US, blaming the killing of black citizens on “some bad apples”.

“I think 99.9 percent of our law enforcement officers are great Americans,” he said on CNN.

“Many of them are African American, Hispanic, Asian, they’re working the toughest neighborhood, they’ve got the hardest jobs to do in this country and I think they’re amazing, great Americans.

“There is no doubt that there are some racist police, I think they’re the minority, I think they’re the few bad apples and we need to root them out.”

Trump ‘taken into underground White House bunker by Secret Service’

The Associated Press reported that Secret Service agents had rushed Mr. Trump into an underground White House bunker as protests flared outside on Friday.

AP said its source was a Republican close to the White House not authorized to publicly discuss private matters and said the account had been confirmed by another official.

Protests had turned violent in Washington DC on Friday, with protesters throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades just outside the White House.

The Friday protests had sparked one of the highest alerts at the White House complex since the September 11 terror attacks in 2001, AP said.

Security at the White House has been reinforced by the National Guard and by additional personnel from the Secret Service and the US Park Police.

On Saturday morning Mr. Trump had tweeted that “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” would have greeted protesters if they had entered the grounds of the White House.

Flowers at ‘sacred space’ where George Floyd died

At the Minneapolis intersection where Mr. Floyd was killed, people gathered with brooms and flowers, saying it was important to protect what they called a “sacred space”.

The intersection was blocked with the traffic cones while a ring of flowers was laid out.

County Commissioner Angela Conley showed up shortly after the curfew lifted, saying that police had trampled flowers and photos of Mr. Floyd.

“The community needs healing, and what happened last night only exacerbated the pain that’s been felt,” she said of police action.

Ms. Conley said the demonstrations and confrontations with police would continue until the other three officers who were at the scene when Mr. Floyd was pinned down are arrested and prosecuted.

The officer who put his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, was charged last week with murder. All four officers have been fired.

Minnesota Attorney-General Keith Ellison warned it would be hard to secure a homicide conviction against Mr. Chauvin.

“Prosecuting police officers for misconduct, including homicide and murder is very difficult,” he told reporters.

“If you look at the cases that have been in front of the public in the last many years, it’s easy to see that is true. Every single link in the prosecutorial chain will come under attack as we present this case.”

By Sunday, the fury had spread to Europe, where thousands gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square, clapping and waving placards despite government rules barring crowds because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The post George Floyd protests continue into sixth night across United States, police fire tear gas on crowd near the White House first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

As the Trump administration has sparred with federal judges in its efforts to stop illegal border crossings, those wanting to come to America have been paying attention. Illegal crossings at the US southern border have spiked recently, with border patrol agents picking up nearly 2,000 people a day trying to enter from Mexico.

While the migrant caravan making its way north may have dwindled somewhat in numbers, more groups are coming along behind.

US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said, “We are already facing a border security and humanitarian crisis along our southwest border. Each day on average for the last three weeks CBP has encountered a combination of almost 1,900 persons apprehended crossing our border illegally or presenting without documents at ports of entry.”

“They are incentivized to try to cross…by the expectation that they will be allowed to stay,” he continued. “There are tens of thousands of migrants between the Guatemala border and the US border moving toward us at any given time.  Within that flow and included are about 17,000 criminals last year along with hardened smugglers and people from over 100 different countries around the world.”

Border patrol is bringing in all resources from extra agents to helicopters to special operations and medical teams to deal with this crisis. When you add the active duty troops and National Guard units heading here to provide support, there will soon be more assets guarding our southern frontier than currently serving in Afghanistan or Iraq.

One Honduran man traveling with the caravan told us they are coming in, no matter what they may face.

“We’ve decided if we’re going to die, we are going to die together. We are going to make it or die trying,” he said.

If they repeat the performance made on the Guatemala-Mexico border, one group of soldiers from Fort Carson, Colorado stands ready to disrupt their plans.

PV2 Robert Marschewski, 4th Engineer Battalion, Fort Carson, Colorado told CBN News, “As a combat engineer we are highly trained in obstacles, which will be very useful right now. It’s just another way to support my country, and do what needs to be done.”

The new border wall is going up very slowly in Texas and California, and its progress could be significantly affected depending on the outcome of next week’s elections. In the meantime, these troops will fill in the gaps and form a human wall to help border agents handle the crisis along our 2,000-mile southern border.

Source: https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/national-security/2018/november/pre-caravan-border-stats-are-staggering-17-000-criminals-100-countries-1-900-caught-each-day

The post Pre-Caravan Border Stats Are Staggering: 17,000 Criminals, 100 Countries, 1,900 Caught Each Day first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“Anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from a quick visit to West Virginia, adding that “we’ll probably keep them, or a large portion of them, until such time as we get the wall.”

In Mexico, Trump’s push for a troop surge at the border prompted President Enrique Peña Nieto to chastise him for straining the relationship with unfounded “threatening or disrespectful attitudes.”

“If your recent statements are the result of frustration due to domestic policy issues, to your laws or to your Congress, it is to them that you should turn, not to Mexicans,” he said in a national address in which he echoed condemnations from four contenders to succeed him next month.

It was an unusual show of unity fueled by resentment of Trump’s bashing of immigrants and threats to scrap a trade deal.

“Something that brings together and unites absolutely all Mexicans is our certainty that nothing and no one stands above the dignity of Mexico,” said Peña Nieto.

Trump’s announcement Tuesday caught aides, lawmakers and Mexican officials by surprise. The White House has provided few details since he declared that as long as Congress refuses to provide wall funding, he will use military assets to block drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

Top aides had not mentioned the possibility of a troop surge in the days leading up to the announcement, even as they discussed Trump’s demands for the wall and for enhanced funding and legal authority for border security and immigration enforcement.

Critics, including the ACLU and a chorus of immigrant advocates, accuse Trump of manufacturing a crisis, and rashly deploying the military out of frustration that Congress has stymied his signature campaign pledge.

Mission needs not drafted

In a sign of the haste with which the troop surge was unveiled, Homeland Security officials haven’t yet drafted a list of mission needs, which will be used to set personnel targets.

“The Pentagon has to work with the states to get the right kind of resources and the right combination and then we owe the Pentagon a full and complete list of our requirements,” Border Patrol chief Ron Vitiello told Fox News.

“We’re going to coordinate. They will provide us with the requirements, and then, from that, we’ll determine how many, and what’s the mission, and how many we’ll deploy,” the chief Pentagon spokeswoman, Dana White, told reporters.

The comments suggested that Trump has a target in mind that hasn’t yet been supported by expert analysis and advice.

Trump sought $25 billion to replace existing border wall and expand the barrier from its current 654 miles. He said Tuesday that he seeks no more than 700 to 800 miles of barrier along the 1,954-mile southwest border. Last week, Vitiello cited a 1,000-mile target.

Both are well shy of the impression Trump gave during the campaign, when he promised to build a “big, beautiful wall” at least 30 feet high, and to make Mexico pay for it.

Congress provided $1.6 billion in the $1.3 trillion budget Trump signed last month — enough for about 100 miles of barrier, two-thirds of it replacement for existing fence. Slow progress has proved an embarrassment for Trump, as has Mexico’s adamant and public refusal to bow to his demands.

Tension with Mexico

Tensions have run high between Trump and Peña Nieto. Traditionally, a summit between the U.S. and Mexican presidents is a top priority after an election in either country. Peña Nieto canceled a visit to Washington early in Trump’s term when the American refused to disavow his demand for a border wall that Mexico would pay for.

The two presidents could meet next week at at the Summit of the Americas in Lima, Peru, but a senior White House sidestepped the question by noting previous meetings with Mexican counterparts by Jared Kushner and at the secretary of state level. Kushner is Trump’s son-in-law.

Dallas Rep. Jeb Hensarling was among the Republicans praising Trump’s move to put troops at the border.

“As any Texan can tell you, our national borders are not secure enough,” he said in a statement. “It is refreshing to see the Trump administration take bold action to protect our national and economic security.”

Tea party activist Jenny Beth Martin also lauded the impending troop deployment, citing — as he did — a caravan of Central Americans walking through Mexico in an annual protest of working conditions.

“President Trump is doing exactly what a president should do by sending our troops to the southern border as a caravan of many thousands of potential illegal immigrants approaches our country,” she said in a statement.

Trump signed an order Wednesday night authorizing a National Guard deployment.

The memo paints a dire picture — a “drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border” –involving drugs, gangs and illegal immigrants that imperils American safety and sovereignty. It speaks of “lawlessness at the border” and a “point of crisis” that justifies military action.

Critics view such descriptions as exaggerations.

“Our American way of life hinges on our ability as a Nation to adequately and effectively enforce our laws and protect our borders,” Trump’s memo says.

Federal law bars the use of military for civil law enforcement, including immigration law. But troops can be used to free up Border Patrol resources. Pentagon spokeswoman White said that “the National Guard’s efforts will include aviation, engineering, surveillance, communications, vehicle maintenance and logistical support.”

President George W. Bush sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the border for a two-year mission that began in 2006. President Barack Obama sent 1,200 guard troops in 2010.

Border governors must agree

Border state governors would need to agree to requests for National Guard troops.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Wednesday that she had conferred with the four governors.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, embraced the troop deployment. Both are Republicans. Neither had publicly requested troops before Trump’s announcement.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, also a Republican, was more cautious, saying only that she appreciated being consulted.

California Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat who has fought the Trump administration in court over the border wall proposal and immigration enforcement, was wary, and it’s unclear if he will go along with Trump’s push for a troop surge. Speaking for Brown’s administration, Lt. Col. Tom Keegan of the California National Guard said the proposal “will be promptly reviewed to determine how best we can assist our federal partners. We look forward to more detail, including funding, duration and end state.”

For days, Trump aides were unable to say how many troops the president wants at the border, how long the mission will last, when it will start, and how he would define success.

Texas has had guardsmen and state troopers assigned to border security for a number of years. California currently has 55 guardsmen assigned to the border.

Source: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/04/05/trump-wants-4000-troops-us-mexico-border-wall-gets-built

The post Trump wants 4,000 troops at border; Mexico’s president chides him as ‘disrespectful’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.