WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Thursday that he plans to sign an order next week to pave the way for large-scale detention of migrants crossing the southern border and to bar anyone caught crossing illegally from claiming asylum as part of his latest election-season response to two caravans of migrants heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border.
"This is an invasion," Trump said in a speech at the White House.
"They've overrun the Mexican police, and they've overrun and hurt, badly, Mexican soldiers," he said, referring to the caravans.
U.S. immigration laws make clear that people seeking asylum may do so either at or between border crossings. But Trump said he would limit that to official crossing points. The U.S. also doesn't have space at the border to manage the large-scale detention of migrants, with most facilities at capacity. But Trump said the government would erect "massive tents."
"We're stopping people at the border," he said firmly.
Trump didn't directly answer a question about whether the children would again be separated from their parents if they cross the border.
Trump was criticized by lawmakers in both parties earlier this year after his administration separated about 3,000 children from caregivers after they crossed the Mexican border.
"We're working on a system where they'll stay together," Trump said of families apprehended crossing the border.
Trump also suggested that the U.S. military mobilizing at the Southwest border could open fire on migrants if they commit violence such as throwing rocks at U.S. troops.
Asked if the military would be able to fire on the migrants, he said "I hope there won't be that."
He said some of the migrants threw stones at Mexican police and soldiers. "We will consider that a firearm. Because there's not much difference," Trump said.
The exact rules for the use of force by military police and other soldiers who will be operating near the border have not been disclosed, but in all cases troops have the right of self-defense. At any rate, they are not expected to be in positions where anyone trying to storm across the border would quickly come in contact with them.
Mark Hertling, a retired Army general, wrote on Twitter after Trump's speech that no military officer would allow a soldier to shoot an individual throwing a rock. "It would be an unlawful order," he wrote, citing the Law of Land Warfare.
The president announced Wednesday that he was considering deploying up to 15,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexican border in response to the still far-off caravans -- roughly double the number the Pentagon is currently planning to deploy.
Trump and other administration officials have long demanded that those seeking asylum enter through legal ports of entry. But many migrants are unaware of that guidance, and official border crossings have grown increasingly clogged.
Immigration officials have turned away asylum seekers at ports of entry because of crowding, telling them to return at a later date.
People who cross illegally are generally arrested and often seek asylum or some other form of protection. Claims have spiked in recent years, and there is currently a backlog of more than 800,000 cases pending in immigration court. Administration officials have railed against what they say are loopholes designed to encourage people, especially from Central America, to come to the U.S. and claim asylum. Generally, about 20 percent of applicants are approved.
The U.S. fielded more than 330,000 asylum claims in 2017, nearly double the number two years earlier and surpassing Germany as highest in the world.
There are currently four caravans making their way toward the U.S. The main group of about 4,000 people -- down from its estimated peak of more than 7,000 -- remains in southern Mexico, mostly proceeding on foot and hundreds of miles from the border.
A second, smaller group of 1,000 or so is more than 200 miles behind the first. A third band of about 500 from El Salvador has made it to Guatemala, and a fourth group of about 700 set out from the Salvadoran capital Wednesday.
Trump also brought up immigration issues during a political rally Thursday night in Columbia, Mo. He railed against "birth tourism," where mothers from abroad travel to America to have babies so the children will automatically be U.S. citizens. And he denounced "chain migration," where new citizens then bring their extended families into the country.
"You come into the country -- you're like 2 months old ... and you're gonna bring 'em all -- your aunts and uncles and grandfathers and lots of people," he said.
The president, who this week threatened to end a constitutional right that automatically grants citizenship to any baby born in the United States, railed against the 14th Amendment during the Thursday rally.
"The Democrats want to continue giving automatic birthright citizenship to every child born to an illegal immigrant, even if they've been on our soil for a mere matter of seconds," Trump said. "Hundreds of thousands of children born to illegal immigrants are made automatic citizens of the United States every year because of this crazy, lunatic policy that we can end."
TRUMP ON SOROS
Trump suggested Wednesday that there might be truth in an unfounded conspiracy theory that philanthropist and Democratic donor George Soros is funding the caravan of Central Americans.
As he left the White House, Trump was asked if he thinks somebody is funding the caravan.
"I wouldn't be surprised, yeah. I wouldn't be surprised," Trump responded.
Asked whether the funder could be Soros, Trump said: "I don't know who, but I wouldn't be surprised. A lot of people say yes."
Trump's comments came in the aftermath of Soros being targeted with a pipe bomb last week and of the fatal shootings last weekend at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The suspect in that shooting reportedly posted frequently online about the migrant caravan.
The White House did not immediately respond Thursday to a question about what evidence Trump has that points to the possibility that Soros has funded a caravan that originated in Honduras.
The theory about Soros funding the caravan dates to late March, when an earlier wave of migrants was heading north. The rumors circulated on Facebook groups and various right-wing websites, as well as on left-wing sites seeking to debunk them.
The rumors cropped up again in recent weeks when a new caravan started receiving attention among conservatives. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., posted a video on Twitter of someone supposedly handing cash to migrants to "storm the US border," and he asked, "Soros?"
Fox News host Laura Ingraham and Fox Business hosts Maria Bartiromo and Lou Dobbs have also raised the possibility that the caravan is getting outside funding.
Trump also tweeted a video Wednesday alleging that Democrats were responsible for allowing a homicidal migrant into the U.S. but provided no evidence supporting that claim.
The man is Luis Bracamontes, a twice-deported Mexican who was given the death penalty in April for killing two Sacramento County sheriff's deputies in 2014. At the time of the shooting, Bracamontes was in the U.S. illegally.
"Illegal immigrant, Luis Bracamontes, killed our people!" reads text on the 53-second video. "Democrats let him into our country ... Democrats let him stay."
The text is superimposed over videos of Bracamontes appearing to show no remorse for his crimes, and even declaring, "I'm gonna kill more cops soon."
The video includes scenes of migrants moving toward the U.S. and asks, "Who else would Democrats let in?"
It was reminiscent of the infamous "Willie Horton" ad used against Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 and condemned as racist. Horton, who was black, raped a woman while out of prison on a weekend furlough. As Massachusetts governor, Dukakis supported the furlough program. He lost the election to Republican George H.W. Bush.
Information for this article was contributed by Jill Colvin, Colleen Long, Elliot Spagat, Amy Taxin, Zeke Miller, Catherine Lucey and Robert Burns of The Associated Press; by Allyson Chiu, John Wagner and Joel Achenbach of The Washington Post; and by Toluse Olorunnipa, Jennifer Jacobs and Jennifer Epstein of Bloomberg News.
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