Trump's Deployment of US Forces on S Border to Stock Immigration Fear - Pelosi

16:47 GMT, 31 October 2018

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The Trump administration is deploying troops on the US border to stir up the president’s political base, even though a migrant caravan traveling through Mexico poses no threat to US national security, House of Representatives Minority Leader Pelosi said.

Sputnik

"The Trump administration is stoking fear to motivate the president’s political base," the minority leader Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday in a press release. "There is no national security rationale requiring the administration to send active-duty troops or deploy the National Guard."

Pelosi explained that the migrant caravan — consisting of several thousand asylum seekers from Central America consists mainly of families, including small children — are fleeing some of the world’s poorest and most violent countries.

Migrant Caravan Approaches US-Mexico Border (VIDEO)

31 October 2018, 14:06 GMT

The United State is deploying more than 5,000 active-duty troops at the border, in addition to more than 2,000 National Guard troops already in place, to assist Border Patrol agents in processing members of the caravan.

Members of the caravan plan to present themselves to US authorities at the United States’ southern border and request political asylum, as authorized by US immigration law.

President Donald Trump has pledged to set up tent cities to detain the migrants until their asylum cases can be heard in US immigration court — a process that can take several years.