TEHRAN, October 30 - US President Donald Trump has said his administration is planning to "build tent cities" for the thousands of Central American migrants seeking asylum who are heading towards the Southern border.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - Trump made the announcement during a Fox News interview on Monday night after the Pentagon announced it was deploying 5,200 active-duty troops to beef up security the country’s border with Mexico.
Trump has ratcheted up anti-migrant rhetoric ahead of crucial midterm congressional elections next week, calling the caravan of Central American migrants an "invasion."
A new group of migrants has left El Salvador to join other United States-bound caravans of Central Americans mostly fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries.
Democrats and rights activists have said Trump is drawing on xenophobic and racist images in an effort to stoke anti-immigrant concerns among voters ahead of Election Day.
"If they apply for asylum, we're going to hold them until such time as their trial takes place. We're going to hold them, we're going to build tent cities, we're gonna build tents all over the place,” he said.
"We're not gonna build structures and spend all of these hundreds of millions of dollars. We're gonna have tents, they're gonna be very nice, and they're going to wait, and if they don't get asylum they get out."
The president added that asylum seekers would remain in detention centers while their claims were being processed, adding that this would discourage would-be applicants from entering the US.
"If you wanna wait, they don't usually get asylum. You know that. The problem is they release them in and then they have the trial, three years later, and nobody shows up,” he said.
"But we are gonna, unlike Obama and unlike others, we're going to take the people, we're going to put them in, and they're gonna wait,” he noted.
"When people find out that happens, you're gonna have far fewer people come up."
The Trump administration has been under criticism over its “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
Nationwide protests have been held to denounce Trump’s crackdown against immigrants.
‘Trump trying to scare US electorate’
On Monday, the US Department of Defense announced to deploy 5,200 active duty troops to the country’s border with Mexico the end of this week.
According to Edward Corrigan, an international lawyer, Trump is trying to scare the American electorate by deploying the military against immigrants in the United States.
“It is very unusual that the US military would be deployed in the United States. That is what the National Guard’s job is, but under extraordinary circumstances martial law could be declared,” Corrigan told Press TV on Monday.
“What Trump is doing in my opinion is he is trying to scare the American electorate, because there is going to be mid-term elections in a week and this is all to scare the American public and certainly mobilize his base, because he said this national emergency if the 7,000 refugees or migrants coming to the border,” he stated.
“Sending soldiers, what do they do? Shoot the refugees? This would be unmitigated disaster for public relations but also blatantly against and it will even constitute to war crimes and certainly a clear violation of the 1951 Geneva Convention,” he said.
“These refugees are maybe set up and somebody is doing it to promote and scare the Republican base and to bring up their voters, so as this is a national emergency,” he noted.
“It may be a political ploy to energize and get Trump supporters to vote and of course other people not,” the analyst noted.
Source: Presstv
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