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On the Border, Mattis Once Again the Adult in the Room
Rhetoric and reality may well be heading for a meeting at the southern border, and if President Trump isn’t very careful it could cause problems for his administration, and the country, far beyond the politics of immigration.
President Trump’s use of US military troops on the border is not anything new. Every president since Reagan has used the military at the border, both active duty and National Guard troops through cooperation with the states. But this latest version of border theater is starting to shape up as much more than just flexing by the president on security and immigration issues.
After weeks of troops assisting with border related tasks, publicized photos and videos of fresh concertina wire at border locations are becoming prominent in news reports. Those photos are needed for the PR side of things because the troops assigned to the border, mostly engineers, logistics, supply, and other supporting personnel along with some Military Police and other units, are not allowed to engage in any law enforcement activities. Despite the rhetoric from the White House and surrogates, military commanders on the ground and at the Pentagon made it clear that no uniformed troops would have any interaction with suspected illegal immigrants at the border or anywhere else, and their mission was to free up customs and border patrol…
