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Retired general calls Trump plan to dispatch active duty troops to border ‘unusual’

Retired Gen. Russel Honoré on Friday said that it is unusual that the Trump administration would dispatch around 800 active duty troops to the U.S. southern border amid news of the migrant Central American caravan moving toward the U.S. border. 

“What’s unusual about this mission is the White House insisted on using active duty troops as opposed to using the authority they already have on the national guard that already there,” Honoré told Hill.TV’s Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton on “Rising.” 

Honoré noted that it is not unusual to use the National Guard at the border and said that active duty personnel used to be sent to the border for surveillance purposes. 

“It is not unusual to use the military. Both President Bush and President Obama sent additional National Guard to assist the border patrol when we had a high number of immigration issues, and people coming to the border, and they were again, used in a support role, and in some cases they even built fences,” he said. 

“Until the late nineties, active duty troops used to use to go and help the border patrol with surveillance,” he said. “Then there was an incident where a young man was killed on a patrol that was going on, and since then the Pentagon pulled away from that mission to have any active military doing surveillance in the true use of military tactics along the border.” 

President Trump on Thursday tweeted that he is bringing out the military to secure this U.S.-Mexico border. 

Reports surfaced later Thursday that Defense Secretary James Mattis will sign an order sending up to 800 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border. 

A Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday that it expected to receive a request for assistance from the Department of Homeland Security.

— Julia Manchester 

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