GOP Rep. Francis Rooney: I don't feel comfortable with deploying military troops at the southern border https://t.co/DzSczckfkY
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 3, 2018
A GOP lawmaker on Tuesday voiced disapproval with President Trump’s vow to send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to prevent illegal crossings.
“I don’t really feel really comfortable with deploying military troops and creating the possibility for an increase in violence and an escalation of the conflict,” Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) said on CNN.
Instead, Rooney said, “These people should be stopped at the border and vetted out, just the normal process, and we should have plenty of agents down there to do that.” He voiced concerns that deploying troops would escalate tensions “unnecessarily.”
{mosads}
“I would rather have the dealings with immigration be handled in a civil context and not a military one,” he said.
Trump said Tuesday that he plans to deploy U.S. troops to guard the southern border to prevent illegal crossings until a wall is built and more security is put in place. His push to deploy the military to the U.S.-Mexico border came after days of escalated rhetoric over immigration policy.
The president has declared in recent days that he is no longer open to a deal to protect young immigrants brought illegally into the U.S. as children, has called on Mexico to step up efforts to deter illegal border crossings, has demanded Congress change U.S. immigration laws and has repeatedly warned of a so-called caravan of migrants heading for the U.S.-Mexico border.
Former presidents Obama and George W. Bush both deployed National Guard troops to the border to help stop illegal immigration. The temporary moves came as they were trying to win conservative support for immigration reforms that would allow millions to seek U.S. citizenship.