WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon rejected a White House request last month to send troops to the border with Mexico to tackle an immigrant convoy, CNN quoted Pentagon officials as saying.
The White House asked for a reserve force to provide "crowd control" in areas along the border and protect border guards before thousands of migrants arrived at the US border, the network quoted unnamed defense officials as saying.
However, according to CNN, the Pentagon rejected the request on Oct. 26, because the Department of Defense felt that the required tasks were outside the scope of actual soldiers' authority.
Neither the Pentagon nor the White House has officially commented on the report.
A convoy of Central American immigrants is heading toward the US border, trying to cross through Mexico. US President Donald Trump called them "a dangerous group of people," adding: "They will not come to our country."
Trump announced earlier that he would deploy as many as 15,000 US troops on the border with Mexico to stop the infiltration of immigrant convoys.
Trump warned on Thursday that the US military could fire on Central American immigrants who would throw stones at the military while trying to enter the United States illegally.
"If they want to throw stones at our army, our army will respond," he said at the White House. He earlier threatened to send 15,000 troops to the border with Mexico.
"I told them (the soldiers) to consider it as a gun," Trump said, "If the migrants throw stones, as they did with the Mexican police and army, I would say: 'It's like a gun.'"
A Pentagon spokesman said he did not want to comment on "hypothetical cases." He explained that US forces are composed of "trained professionals who always have the basic right to self-defense."
A few days before the Nov. 6 election, Trump is intensifying his remarks, which are likely to rally voters, especially those on immigration.
