Earlier, 5,900 troops were deployed along the US-Mexico border to help stop a caravan of several thousand would-be migrants from Central America trekking their way through Mexico toward the US.
“If we find that it gets to a level where we are going to lose control or where people are going to start getting hurt, we will close entry into the country for a period of time until we can get it under control,” Donald Trump said, speaking to reporters after a Thanksgiving phone call with members of the military.
Asked to clarify whether he meant closing the whole border or just part of it, Trump confirmed that he meant the whole border. “I mean the whole border. Mexico will not be able to sell their cars into the United States where they make so many cars at great benefit to them, not a great benefit to us, by the way,” he said, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago home on Thursday.
Trump also confirmed that he has given US troops the okay to use “lethal force” if necessary to deal with some of the “tremendously dangerous” people in the migrant caravan, who he said have already engaged in mass violence in Mexico. “You have many criminals in that caravan, and the big caravan hasn't arrived yet,” the president said.
Nevertheless, Trump said that the border was “fortified” with fencing, walls and other measures to prevent the caravan from getting through. “They're not coming through. We're not letting criminals…
