WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th October, 2018) The US administration's decision to deploy soldiers to the southwestern border will further terrorize communities living there, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Border Rights Center Policy Counsel Shaw Drake said in a press release.
Earlier in the day, the Defense Department announced that it was deploying more than 5,200 active-duty soldiers to the southwestern border with Mexico to protect against a migrant caravan.
"Sending active military forces to our southern border is not only a huge waste of taxpayer money, but an unnecessary course of action that will further terrorize and militarize our border communities," Drake said on Monday.
Military personnel are legally prohibited from engaging in immigration enforcement, Drake said.
Drake explained that immigrants arriving to the United States have a legal right to seek asylum from violence and persecution from their home countries. Unauthorized migration is near historic lows and border communities have among the lowest crime rates in the United States, he said.
800 US troops are already on their way to Texas, according to the Pentagon. US President Donald Trump has reportedly mulled entirely shutting down the southern border to block a caravan of some 4,000 Central American migrants that is headed for the United States.
