Militarize the border? Has this fool ever heard of posse comitatus?

FOX & Friends and FOX prime time pundits (aka presidential advisers) have our nativist racist Twitter-troll-in-chief all worked up about a “caravan” of Central American refugees coming to America. Why Is Trump Still Obsessing About a Caravan of Migrants?

But the truth is that, according to the Washington Post, Trump’s ignorance about what is going on is even worse than we thought. Here are some things he doesn’t seem to know:

• “The Mexican government on Monday evening moved to break up the caravan of migrants moving through southern Mexico”
• This is an “annual caravan intended to raise awareness about the plight of people making the dangerous trek across Mexico toward the United States”
• “Mexico deported 16,278 people during the first two months of 2018; 97 percent of them were Central Americans, according to the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group.”
• “Mexico increased its immigration enforcement in 2014, when it enacted a “Southern Border Plan” in response to a flood of unaccompanied Central American children who were transiting the country and arriving in the United States.

While Trump is rage tweeting, this is happening:

On Monday, Mexico’s interior minister, Alfonso Navarrete, said he and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen had spoken. “We agreed to analyze the best ways to attend to the flows of migrants in accordance with the laws of each country,” Navarrete tweeted.

On Tuesday, the totally unhinged Trump said he’ll send military to guard U.S.-Mexico border, threatens foreign aid to Honduras:

President Trump on Tuesday signaled plans to escalate a crackdown on illegal immigration, announcing that the U.S. military will be sent to guard the U.S.-Mexico border and threatening foreign aid to Honduras.

For the third straight day, Trump seized on coverage of a “caravan” of 1,000 migrants, primarily from Honduras, to call for tougher immigration policies and warn of what he called “weak” border security.

But the prospect sending military personnel to the southern border, as well as cutting off foreign aid, added a new dimension to Trump’s immigration strategy that so far had centered on threats to walk away from the North American Free Trade Agreement and pressuring Congress to send him funding for a border wall.

“We are going to be guarding our border with our military[.]”

Later at a news conference, Trump said he would soon meet with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to discuss having the U.S. military deployed to the border with Mexico.

Yeah, I don’t think so. Has this fool ever heard of posse comitatus?

18 U.S. Code § 1385 – Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus

Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

The purpose of the Posse Comitatus Act – in concert with the Insurrection Act of 1807 – is to limit the powers of the federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.

It was passed as an amendment to an army appropriation bill in 1878 following the disputed election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876. The Compromise of 1877 marked the end of the Reconstruction Era – and required the removal of occupation Union troops from the South – restoring white supremacy in the South. (You can bet Trump’s racist supporters know this history).

The Posse Comitatus Act does not apply to the Army National Guard and the Air National Guard under state authority from acting in a law enforcement capacity within its home state or in an adjacent state if invited by that state’s governor.

The Obama administration sent 1,200 National Guard troops to the southern border in 2010 to assist Border Patrol and immigration officials amid rising concerns about drug trafficking:

President Barack Obama will deploy 1,200 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help quell violence there, according to an administration official.

The official said the troops will be sent “to provide intelligence; surveillance and reconnaissance support; intelligence analysis; immediate support to counternarcotics enforcement; and training capacity until Customs and Border Patrol can recruit and train additional officers and agents to serve on the border.”

In other words, in a support role to the Border Patrol, not a direct law enforcement role for the military.

Then Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) whined to FOX News at the time:

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said he’s heard that “the 1,200 border patrol troops are, in effect, desk jobs.”

“They aren’t boots on the ground at the border,” he said, adding that “they were not intended to be deployed to the border.”

“Rather they’ll be investigating, administrative support, maybe training,” he said. “Now that’s all fine…but the real value of the National Guard is to be seen.”

Republicans always want to use our military as if it is a Praetorian Guard to an imperial presidency. This is an especially dangerous thing to do with an authoritarian wannabe autocrat like Donald Trump.

Trump floated the threat about foreign aid to Honduras in a tweet early Tuesday morning as he continued to complain about the “caravan” moving through Mexico.

“The caravan doesn’t irritate me, the caravan makes me very sad that this could happen to the United States,” Trump told reporters during his [press conference].

The “caravan” — an annual event that is meant to draw attention to the refugee crisis in Central America — has spurred new calls from Trump for an immigration crackdown, particularly funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall that has eluded him [due to his own gross incompetence]. Conservative media outlets have has focused on the caravan in recent days.

“The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our “Weak Laws” Border, had better be stopped before it gets there,” Trump tweeted shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday. “Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!”

The Mexican government took steps late Monday to break up the caravan, registering the migrants and saying that some would be asked to leave the country while others would receive humanitarian assistance. Mexico’s Interior Ministry said Monday that “under no circumstances does the government of Mexico promote irregular migration.”

He referred to the caravan in tweets Monday night, accusing Democrats of allowing “open borders, drugs and crime” while deriding U.S. immigration laws as an “Obama joke.”

“Honduras, Mexico and many other countries that the U.S. is very generous to, sends many of their people to our country through our WEAK IMMIGRATION POLICIES. Caravans are heading here. Must pass tough laws and build the WALL. Democrats allow open borders, drugs and crime!”

Meanwhile, White House officials are preparing new proposals that they say would close “loopholes” in U.S. immigration laws. Separately, the Department of Homeland Security is pushing for the end of the “catch and release” practice, which allows undocumented immigrants who have been apprehended to be released while they await their hearings.

So he proposes violating constitutional due process. As Reuters pointed out last year, various court rulings govern how long undocumented immigrants can be held in the government’s custody. Also, there simply aren’t enough beds in the nation’s immigration detention centers to house every undocumented immigrant facing potential deportation.

FOX News keeps manipulating the mental disorders of this president by appealing to his nativist and racist demons. This FOX News presidency has to end.