US President Donald Trump said that the US military will not shoot at a caravan of refugees from Central America, even if migrants throw stones at soldiers. Although only a day before the American leader said that such incidents can be equated to an attack with a firearm. However, soon after his words were spread in the media, the head of the White House explained his statement.

“If a stone is thrown at a military or border guard officer, those who did will be detained. But this does not mean that they will shoot. They will be quickly arrested and will remain in custody for a long time, ”ABC News quotes the president as saying.

After yesterday's comments, Pres. It’s not a lot of people’s thinking about it. https://t.co/NkJuIoh4fPpic.twitter.com/j951ht3BtR

- ABC News (@ABC) November 2, 2018

Earlier, representatives of the Pentagon stated that the military sent to the border with Mexico would provide support to civilian authorities and are not going to enter into direct contact with illegal immigrants. If there are incidents between soldiers and refugees that have been described as “casual communication” in Washington, the military intends to be guided by the same rules as the staff of the US Customs and Border Protection Bureau (CBP), said General Terence O'Shaughnessy, responsible for the operation . Thus, the border guards should avoid the use of force to kill, if they have other options for resolving the situation.

In 2010–2014, nine incidents of clashes were recorded, during which migrants who threw stones at border guards were killed in response fire. Subsequently, after the adoption of the new rules, this no longer happened.

Meanwhile, the ex-Commissar of the SVR, Gil Kerlikowski, under which the rules were revised, believes that there is no need to send soldiers to the border with Mexico to meet the caravan.

“Military men doing active service in hot spots were not prepared for this at all. The border service may well control such a small number of people. Employees have experience in identifying and separating true refugees from members of criminal gangs, ”CNN quotes Kerlikowski as saying.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen said she would not comment on the possible actions of the military, and the rules for the use of force by members of her department are publicly available. In addition, she added that border guards are constantly under threat of attack.

“Last year we had more than 800 cases in which our agents were attacked by people crossing the border,” Nielsen said.

Constitutional caravan

According to media reports, the caravan has about 4 thousand migrants from Central America. At the moment, they have to overcome a distance of 1.2 thousand km to the nearest border crossing point on the southern line of the United States. The American media, which managed to talk to the marchers, noted that there were illegal immigrants in the caravan, who had already been deported from the United States several times.

  • Reuters

In June of this year, US Department of Justice chief Jeff Sessions stated that the threat of domestic violence and the high crime rate in Central American countries will not be viewed by Washington as a weighty rationale for obtaining refugee status. Donald Trump stressed this week that people on the caravan would not be given protection for refugee status and should be turned back.

In response, 12 migrants from Honduras decided to sue Trump, Sessions, the head of the IMB Nielsen as well as the US Immigration and Customs Police, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and the Citizenship and Immigration Services. The corresponding lawsuit with the help of human rights defenders was passed on the eve of the Washington District Court. According to CNBC, it claims that the President of the United States "neglects the norms of the law, including the constitution, in order to deprive Central American citizens of the legal right to seek asylum in the United States."

Lawyer John Shorman, who represents migrants ’interests, stressed: Trump’s actions, he believes, violate the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, because it states that“ no one can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without a lawful trial. ”

Not a matter of the army

At the same time, some experts believe that the departments of the Department of Homeland Security, which are responsible for border security, clearly cannot cope with ensuring effective control over the southern borders of the United States.

“A huge number of illegal migrants cross the American-Mexican border every year, and the border services cannot do anything about it. Hence the idea to erect a wall on the border. These plans strongly support local authorities, especially in Texas, where illegal migration has become a very painful topic. If Trump is criticized for this, it’s just because he builds the wall too slowly. A state that is not capable of controlling its borders, according to international standards, falls into the category of a failed state, ”said Vladimir Batyuk, head of the Center for Military-Political Studies at the Institute of USA and Canada, Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT.

According to him, a somewhat paradoxical situation has arisen, in which the United States is positioning itself as a country that provides global security, but at the same time it has not been able to protect itself against illegal migrants.

“Many of them are connected with drug traffickers, gun barons, human trafficking and other manifestations of organized crime. The fact that Washington is forced in this case to involve the armed forces is a direct indication that the US border services are not coping with their task, ”Batiuk stressed.

The expert believes that the deployment of the military at the border and the possible transfer of police functions to them may lead to unforeseen situations.

“This is not the army’s business, the army’s business is to fight,” the expert emphasized in an interview with RT.

“Ready to sacrifice life”

Trump's promise not to fire on the caravan should not be viewed as a softening of his tough anti-immigrant position, Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, said in an interview with RT.

“Migrants should have a legal way to get to the desired country. Without such a mechanism, the situation will be tense all the time, because the situation, because of which they are forced to leave their home countries, has developed there, including because of the US foreign policy, ”said Vladimir Bruter.

As a result, the citizens of these countries want to get into the “country of prosperity” in any way, even despite the difficulties that await them, the political scientist noted.

“When Trump says that they will be shot, then he changes it to the words that they will be planted, he does not tell the whole truth. And it lies in the fact that these people are ready to sacrifice their lives, since in their homeland it has become simply unbearable for them, ”concluded Bruter.