President-elect Donald Trump will send troops to the U.S. border and designate the Torren de Aragua gang as a foreign terrorist organization as one of his first acts in office on Monday.
The declarations are among 11 border-related executive orders that Republicans plan to sign within the first hours of taking office. Fox News reported.
The news comes as a caravan of hundreds of migrants continues toward the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to cross before the Trump administration's toughest immigration policies go into effect.
As part of a broader executive order, the U.S. military's Northern Command (NORTHCOM) will be tasked with border security. An undisclosed number of U.S. troops will be deployed to the border to “prioritize U.S. borders and territorial integrity in the strategic planning of operations.”
“This executive order sends a clear message that the United States intends to exercise sovereignty over its lands and borders, and that the military has a role in protecting them,” a Trump transition source said. said Fox's Bill Melzin.
The president-elect also plans to designate organized immigrant gangs, including the Venezuelan Torren de Aragua and El Salvador's MS-13, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).
Formal recognition of a group as a threat to national security would give the federal government even more power to target group members and those who provide support and resources to them.
Reuters
Texas Governor Greg Abbott previously announced that Vice President Kamala Harris, the “border czar”, would be arrested in October after the brutal rape and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nangaray in Houston. The members of Torren de Aragua, reportedly after two tribulations, had called for the organization to be declared a terrorist organization.
Additionally, President Trump plans to end several of the Biden administration's immigration policies, including a large number of humanitarian paroles that give special consideration to immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. The CBP One program, an app that allows immigrants to register requests to legally enter the U.S. from Mexico, will also be suspended.
The Biden administration's catch-and-release policy, which would release the vast majority of migrants stopped at the border into the United States, would also be halted.
President Trump plans to instruct authorities to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for immigration screening.
Border wall construction will also resume as part of the order.
The declaration is in line with promises made by President Trump in an impassioned speech to supporters in Washington on Sunday.
“By sunset tomorrow, the invasion of our country will have stopped,” he said at the “Make America Great Again Victory Rally” at Capital One Arena.
President Trump is expected to announce details of his planned executive order during his inaugural address on Monday, according to Fox.
The news comes as hundreds of migrants continue toward the Mexico-U.S. border. The caravan was seen Monday forcing its way through Tapachula, on the southern tip of Mexico, more than 1,000 miles from south Texas.
The caravan is likely to be intercepted and disbanded by Mexican authorities, as has been the case with previous groups in recent months.
