President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the country's southern border with Mexico would be guarded with the military, calling it a "big step."
With Defense Secretary James Mattis seated next to him at the White House, Trump called the nation's border laws ones "so weak and so pathetic," adding they were written by Democrats.
"Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step," Trump said. "We really haven't done that before or certainly not very much before."
Trump appeared to take credit for Mexico stopping the recent Central American immigrant caravan that came from Honduras and was heading toward the southern border, saying he told Mexico "very strongly" it had to be addressed.
"I told Mexico very strongly you're going to have do something about these caravans that are coming up. I just noticed that the caravan now ... is breaking up very rapidly. That's because Mexico has very strong immigration laws, as we should have," Trump said. "We have immigration laws that are laughed at by everybody."
Trump tweeted about the caravan Tuesday morning, warning it "had better be stopped before it gets" to the U.S. However, it reportedly had already been halted in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca when Trump sent his missive.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/981121409807155200