President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would send U.S. troops to guard the border with Mexico, escalating his campaign against illegal immigration as he vented frustration again over what he sees as lax U.S. law and a porous southern border.
“Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
The president also said he would step up pressure on Mexico to halt a protest march of asylum seekers traveling from gang-ridden Central America through Mexico in hopes of entering the U.S. He suggested he might try to use the North American Free Trade Agreement, now being renegotiated, and foreign aid as leverage to stop the caravan.
“The big Caravan of People…had better be stopped,” Mr. Trump tweeted Tuesday. “Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen.”
Mr. Trump’s efforts to cut down on illegal crossings at the border come as the number of people apprehended there by U.S. authorities has plummeted in recent years, thanks mostly to slowed population growth and improved economic prospects in Mexico. Border apprehensions peaked at more than 1.6 million in 2000, but stood at about 310,000 last year, the lowest level since 1971.
The Pentagon said it couldn’t provide any additional information about Mr. Trump’s statement about military deployment to the border, which he made while sitting next to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.
The previous two administrations have deployed National Guard and active-duty troops to the border, but sending active-duty forces may present legal challenges, depending on how their mission is described.
Among the questions is whether funding such a plan would require congressional approval. The Pentagon has been in talks with the Department of Homeland Security about how it can support border operations, according to a U.S. official.
The White House said later Tuesday that Mr. Trump had been briefed last week and again Tuesday on immigration issues and a strategy to deal with them. A spokeswoman said plans include mobilization of the National Guard and legislative proposals aimed at making it harder for migrants to win safe harbor in the U.S.
Tuesday marked the third straight day that Mr. Trump attacked U.S. immigration law, saying asylum laws allow people to enter the country without authorization and stay without permission. He called the existing laws “horrible.”
On Monday, senior administration officials said they would again ask Congress to change laws that protect asylum seekers and unaccompanied children arriving at the U.S. border. The White House made similar requests during immigration talks with Congress this winter, but lawmakers declined to act on them.
That proposal is aimed at the large number of illegal migrants who turn themselves in to border agents after crossing, in the hope they will be allowed to stay in the U.S. Adding border agents or U.S. troops would do nothing to affect this group.
Mexico’s government has formally asked for clarification of Mr. Trump’s comments about deploying troops, said Gerónimo Gutiérrez, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. “It’s certainly not something that the Mexican government welcomes, but as soon as we have further clarification, we can expect to have a better idea of where we are,” he told CNN.
Mexican officials have said previous demands by Mr. Trump that Mexico pay for a border wall are unacceptable, and they rejected Mr. Trump’s recent criticisms on migrants, pointing out that Mexico regularly deports Central Americans in its country who seek to reach the U.S. border.
“Under no circumstances does the Mexican government promote irregular migration,” Mexico’s foreign and interior ministries said in a joint statement Monday.
Thousands of National Guard troops were deployed to the Mexican border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California by President George W. Bush from 2006 to 2008, and a smaller contingent was deployed in 2010 and 2011 by President Barack Obama.
During those deployments, the troops helped augment the Border Patrol while that agency worked to add additional agents and construct new fencing. The troops, which were there mostly for training, were barred from law-enforcement activities but helped repair equipment and monitor surveillance cameras and sensors. Active-duty troops also have been sent to the border from time to time, primarily for training activities.
Mr. Trump’s threats on Nafta come as American, Canadian and Mexican officials are stepping up talks on the trade pact. Mexico’s economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, plans to meet U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Wednesday after trade negotiators cleared a major roadblock on controversial auto-industry issues, a move that could put them on track to reach a deal as early as this month.
A ministerial-level meeting with Mexico, U.S. and Canada is planned for Friday.
U.S. and Mexican authorities both are pushing for a speedy conclusion to Nafta talks ahead of elections in both countries and in light of the Trump administration’s recently announced trade actions against China.
The “caravan of people” Mr. Trump criticized Tuesday is an annual event that leaders say aims to raise awareness about the tens of thousands of Central Americans who, facing gang violence and political unrest in one of the world’s most violent regions, flee every year to Mexico or the U.S. This year, the protest caught the attention of Mr. Trump.
Josael Romero, one of the leaders of the caravan, said that the group would rest for a day or two in a rural community in Mexico’s southern Oaxaca state, then attempt to board buses to attend a gathering of migrants in Puebla state on April 6.
Mr. Romero said the group consists of about 1,100 migrants and isn’t being detained by Mexican immigration authorities, though the leaders of the march have had some contact with officials. He said the group intends to proceed to the border city of Tijuana, and that once there, he expects about 100 to 150 of the migrants will cross the border into the U.S. and apply for refugee status.
Most of the migrants are Hondurans who learned of the caravan on social media.
Katerine Enamorado, 22 years old, said she decided to leave Honduras after her ex-husband, a drug dealer, got in debt with a drug gang. She said the gang threatened to kidnap her 1-year-old baby to collect the debt.
“As a mother, I did a difficult choice. But it was the right choice, because the life of my daughter was in peril,” said Ms. Enamorado.
Mexican authorities haven’t stopped the annual protest march because many of the migrants involved have started the process of seeking asylum or humanitarian visas in Mexico, so they aren’t in the country illegally.
Some analysts say Mr. Trump’s criticism of Mexico could jeopardize improved cooperation on border issues.
“The U.S. has a lot at stake,” said Andrew Selee, the president of the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. “There’s a real risk that if President Trump starts blaming Mexico for Central American migration, that cooperation will be much more difficult to sustain, in particular with elections and a new Mexican government coming in,” he added.
Mr. Trump’s threat to cut foreign aid to Honduras is one of a series of such warnings he has issued. The U.S. plans to send $65.8 million in aid to Honduras in fiscal year 2019, according to the State Department. Most of the funds go to violence prevention, justice and rule-of-law programs, along with funding for border and narcotics enforcement.
—Alicia A. Caldwell
and Nancy A. Youssef contributed to this article.
Write to Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com, William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com and Santiago Pérez at santiago.perez@wsj.com
Appeared in the April 4, 2018, print edition as 'Trump Wants Troops at Border.'