President Trump is looking to make one thing absolutely clear as it comes to the southern border fence between the U.S. and Mexico: people will no longer be able to cross illegally.
In preparation of the thousands-strong migrant caravan which is mostly in Tijuana, the president deployed thousands of troops to the border to construct border defenses and build up existing barriers.
So, the border got some upgrades and Trump shared a picture on social media, showing off the improvements.
“The Fake News is showing old footage of people climbing over our Ocean Area Fence,” Trump tweeted. “This is what it really looks like – no climbers anymore under our Administration!”
Trump later tweeted out, “America First” and “Make America Great Again.”
Trump’s initial tweet seemed to reference recently resurfaced videos of migrants crossing the border between San Diego and Tijuana. The footage was actually from six months earlier, concerning another caravan, and took place well before Trump began to build up the border wall.
Last week, Breitbart reported several hundred migrants from the thousands-strong caravan were escorted by Mexican police to the United States-Mexico border.
From the report:
— Advertisement — A caravan of nearly 400 migrants in eight buses arrived in the northern border state of Sonora, escorted by state and federal police on Monday.
A video posted by online depicts part of the caravan passing through a toll booth.
State and Federal police are providing security for the group as it heads to the U.S. border. The caravan stopped on the outskirts of Ciudad Obregon for a period of no more than 10 minutes to receive food and water. The caravan later stopped at a gas station, where they were met by personnel from Civil Protection and other agencies, according to local media.
After the report, several news outlets showed footage of migrants climbing the border fence.
Televisa Tijuana Oficial and FRONTERA uploaded videos to social media of the migrants scaling the U.S.-Mexico border.
Check it out, via Breitbart:
LLega parte de la Caravana Migrante al muro de Playas de Tijuana
LLega parte de la Caravana Migrante al muro de Playas de Tijuana
Posted by Televisa Tijuana Oficial on Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Migrante salta el cerco en Playas de Tijuana
Posted by Televisa Tijuana Oficial on Tuesday, November 13, 2018
It appears Trump was right and that the videos do not accurately portray the modern border fence.
A video from more than six months ago, in April, via CBS News seems to substantiate the president’s claim that the footage is old. The relevant section can be seen at 1:00 in the video:
As Reuters reports, Trump may be willing to grant the troops stationed at the border the authority to physically defend themselves or other border protection agents:
Ahead of U.S. congressional elections earlier this month, Trump denounced the approach of a caravan of migrants as an “invasion” that threatened American national security, and he sent thousands of U.S. troops to the border to help secure it.
Currently, the troops do not have authority to protect U.S. Customs and Border Patrol personnel. The new authority could be announced on Tuesday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
And:
U.S. officials briefly closed the busiest border crossing from Mexico early on Monday to add concrete barricades and razor wire amid concerns some of the thousands of Central American migrants at the border could try to rush the crossing.
Northbound lanes at the San Ysidro crossing from Tijuana to San Diego, California, were temporarily closed “to position additional port hardening materials,” a U.S. CBP spokesperson said.