WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd November, 2018) US Senator Jack Reed on Thursday sent a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to provide a complete breakdown of costs regarding the deploying US troops to the border with Mexico to deter a migrant caravan from Central America.
"[Y]ou should provide a full accounting of the financial costs of this deployment as well as the impacts it will have on any ongoing military missions," Reed, who is a ranking member on the US Senate Armed Services, said on Thursday.
Trump is deploying 5,000 military personnel to the US-Mexico border as a caravan of migrants from Central America is moving toward the area, but has said he could increase the number to 15,000 troops.
Reed noted that Trump's decision to mobilize unprecedented number of troops to the border with Mexico may put US national security at risk.
The senator also said Trump should offer assistance to the Mexican government to process asylum claims as per international law instead of engaging in the immigration war.
On October 13, a caravan of illegal migrants set out from Honduras in the direction of Mexico and the United States with the goal of obtaining asylum. According to UN estimates, the caravan includes more than 7,000 migrants. However, Mexican authorities have said that the caravan marching through its territory included around 3,600 migrants, and approximately 1,750 people who had applied for asylum in Mexico.
On Monday, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that the CBP is tracking a second caravan of about 3,000 asylum-seekers on the Guatemala-Mexico border.
