What should be done about the caravan of people coming to the U.S.

[HairOfTheDog]

Trump is now telling troops to shoot if they are throwing rocks at the military.

If someone gets shot down there, I don't think it will be an immigrant, it will probably be one of those crackpot hick militiamen who don't know how to act. I really don't think our military will break the law. There has been some analysis done and our defense officials do not believe there are terrorists or other national security threats within the migrant caravan.

I hope none of the unregulated militiamen shoots at migrants.  With all of the incendiary rhetoric coming from the White House, I think that's a real risk.

The military is worried about the militiamen for other reasons as well.  According to the military docs, they pretend to be aiding border patrol but often steal the equipment of the National Guard.

According to military planning docs, there is concern that the high number of border patrol agents needed to effectively deal with a large group of migrants will limit the border patrol's ability to focus on drug trafficking and other organized criminal activity they pursue on a daily basis.

Violent right-wing and violent left-wing American protesters showing up at the border is another cited concern.

And, I believe that there is legitimate concern that the forced entry the migrants undertook at the Guatemala/Mexico border could be a sign that some of the migrants are more desperate/aggressive than in the past, especially if they're confronted with conflicting passions on the U.S. side of the border.

Anyway, Mattis, when pressed, has tried to make this deployment of at least 5,200 active duty forces seem like business as usual.

“We are there in support of the secretary of homeland security, who needs additional military assistance. We do this following storms, we do this in support of the Department of Homeland Security. This is a different aspect of it, but that’s what we are doing,” Mattis said Wednesday.  https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-...ents-show/