WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump is considering a plan to prevent migrants from entering the US-Mexico border to deny them asylum, the Washington Post reported Thursday.
As a convoy of immigrants from Central America moves across Mexico toward the United States, the White House is considering whether to close the border and deny them the opportunity to seek asylum in the United States, the newspaper said, citing administration officials.
A US official said on Thursday that the armed forces received a request from the Department of Homeland Security to deploy troops on the US-Mexican border after Trump announced that he would "move the army" to protect the country from the convoy.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military was reviewing the request, which would require deployment of 800 to 1,000 troops on the border to help with logistics and infrastructure operations.
A federal law dating back to the 1870s forbids the military and other major branches of the armed forces from carrying out civil law on US territory except with congressional authorization.
But the armed forces can provide support services to law enforcement agencies, and have already done so from time to time since the 1980s.
But the US official said the soldiers would not take part in "law enforcement" activities.
The Pentagon has not responded to a request for comment so far.
Trump has taken a hard line against immigration, both legitimate and illegal, since he took office last year.
On Monday, Trump said he had notified the "border guards and the army" that the immigrant convoy was a national emergency.
Despite Trump's anger, thousands of men, women and children seeking to escape violence, poverty and corruption in their countries continued their arduous journey toward the distant American border.
People marched under the moonlight on Thursday night from the Mapestepic region near the Guatemalan border in southern Mexico.
An official in the region said 5,300 immigrants were in Mappastek on Wednesday evening.
Another group of 1,000 people began a similar flight from Guatemala.
"The army has moved for this national emergency," Trump said on Twitter.
White House officials and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment on the deployment of the military or national emergency.
