Jeff Flake calls troops at the border a ‘stunt’ as first caravan migrants arrive in Tijuana and CLIMB border fence
The retiring Arizona senator called it ‘unfortunate’ there are troops at the border
‘You can’t call it anything but a stunt here’
Called it an ‘executive decision’ that didn’t involve Congress
President Trump dispatched 5,000 troops in the weeks before the election
Plan is to position 15,000 active duty military
Largest caravan still 1,000 miles from the border
Caravan members have been slowly making their way through Mexico
Some already arrived in Tiajuana
Video shows migrants sitting atop a border fence and a few apprehensions
By GEOFF EARLE
DAILYMAIL.COM
14 November 2018
Retiring Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake on Wednesday called President Trump’s deployment of active duty troops to the border a ‘stunt’ without justification.
Flake, whose southern border state seat is being filled by Democrat Kyrsten Sinema, picked up a word that former President Obama also used in the final days before the mid-terms, after the military started sending thousands of troops to confront the immigrant caravan on Trump’s orders.
‘I think it’s unfortunate that we have the soldiers there,’ Flake told MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’
Frankly in Arizona they are stationed in Tucson about 90 miles from the border,’ he added.
‘You can’t call it anything but a stunt here, and it’s unfortunate that they’re going to be away from family during the holidays coming up, and we just don’t know what really for.’
His comment followed a New York Times story by a reporter embedded with the newly-arrived troops who are living in tents without electricity as the caravan makes its way north, with the expectation they will be away for the holidays.
‘We don’t know where the caravan – if it makes it north, is going to come,’ Flake added, the Hill reported. ‘I think it could be handled by civilians that we have there in terms of Border Patrol and others. So I don’t know what I could tell them other than that we shouldn’t be doing this, and this wasn’t an issue that Congress was involved in, it was an executive decision.’
Flakes comments came as the military began ‘hardening’ the border crossing from Tijuana, Mexico, to prepare for the arrival of a migrant caravan trekking inexorably toward the border.
Hardening operations began on Tuesday at the San Ysidro port of entry in California, where a spear-tip group of 400 migrants from the first caravan arrived the same day.
The Rest…HERE
