About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 26, 2018)
4A Friday, October 26, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com WASHINGTON/POLITICS Trump planning to dispatch 800 active duty troops to Mexico border RODRIGO ABD I Associated Press Central American migrants traveling with a caravan to the U.S. make their way to Pijijiapan, Mexico, Thursday, Oct. 25. Saudi Arabia changes its story on Khashoggi killing LEFTERIS PITARAKIS I Associated Press Activists, protesting the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, hold a candlelight vigil outside Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul, Thursday, Oct. 25. BY ROBERT BURNS AND JILL COLVIN Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is planning to dispatch at least 800 active duty troops to the southern border at the direc tion of a president who has sought to transform fears about immigration into elec toral gains in the midterms as a caravan of thousands of migrants makes its way through Mexico. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is expected to sign an order sending the troops to the border, bolstering National Guard forces already there, an official said Thursday. The action comes as President Donald Trump has spent recent days calling attention to the cara van of Central Americans slowly making their way by foot into southern Mexico, but still more than 1,000 miles from U.S. soil. Trump, who made fear about immigrants a major theme of his 2016 election campaign, has been eager to make it a top issue head ing into the Nov. 6 midterm elections, which will deter mine control of Congress. The president and senior White House officials have long believed the issue is key to turning out his base of supporters. The additional troops would provide logistical and other support to the Border Patrol, said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a plan that had not been finalized and formally announced. It’s not unusual for the National Guard to help with border security. Active duty troops, however, are rarely deployed within the United States except for domestic emergencies like hurricanes or floods. Fears of militariz ing the border were fanned by a May 1997 incident in which a Marine on a coun ter-narcotics mission shot to death an 18-year-old who was herding goats in Red- ford, Texas. Troops being sent at Trump’s direction would not be on armed security missions. They would assist the Border Patrol by provid ing things such as vehicles, tents and equipment. There already are about 2,000 National Guard members there under a previous Pen tagon arrangement. Trump has used the cara van to bolster his election- season warnings that the U.S. is being infiltrated by illegal immigrants “pouring across the border,” whom he has painted with a sinister brush. He has claimed, without any apparent basis in fact, that “Middle Easterners” were among the group. At rallies and on Twitter, Trump has tried to portray the Democrats as pro-illegal immigration, even claiming, with no evidence, that Demo crats organized the caravan. He tweeted Thursday that, “Democrat inspired laws make it tough for us to stop people at the bor der” and said he was using the military to respond to what he called a “National Emergency.” The migrants in the sprawling caravan — once estimated by the United Nations to number more than 7,000 — are hoping to make it to the United States. Most are Hondurans, seeking to escape poverty and vio lence, and include families with children. The caravan swelled dra matically soon after cross ing the Mexican border on Oct. 19, but sickness, fear and police harassment have whittled down its numbers. Trump tweeted a direct message to the migrants Thursday, urging them to return home. “To those in the Caravan, turnaround,” he wrote. “We are not letting people into the United States illegally. Go back to your Country and if you want, apply for citizen ship like millions of others are doing!” The migrants have largely been disconnected from news reports about them. When asked about Trump’s tweets, they have generally responded that he should stop attacking them and said they would keep heading north. Candy Guillermo, a 37-year-old migrant in the caravan who had heard about the plan to deploy troops, was surprised she and the children in group would be considered a threat. “Trump should be more humanitarian,” she said. “We only want to give our kids a better future.” Migrants who do reach the U.S. border can claim asy lum under U.S. and interna tional law. Those who clear an initial screening are often released until their cases are decided in immigration court, which can take sev eral years. The U.S. had 331,700 asy lum claims in 2017, more than any country in the world, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. That’s nearly double the asylum claims the U.S. fielded in 2015 and nearly quadruple the claims in 2013. BY AYA BATRAWY AND CHRISTOPHER T0RCHIA Associated Press RIYADH, Saudi Ara bia — Signaling a major pivot in its narrative, Saudi Arabia on Thurs day said evidence shows that the killing of journal ist Jamal Khashoggi was premeditated, an appar ent effort to ease inter national outrage over the death of a prominent critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Saudi prosecutors cited Turkish evidence that the slaying was planned, contradicting a Saudi assertion just days ago that rogue officials from the kingdom killed him by mistake in a brawl inside their Istanbul con sulate. That earlier asser tion, in turn, backtracked from an initial statement that Saudi authorities knew nothing about what happened to the colum nist for The Washington Post, who vanished after entering the consulate Oct. 2. The shifting explana tions indicate Saudi Ara bia is scrambling for a way out of the crisis that has enveloped the world’s largest oil exporter and a major U.S. ally in the Middle East. But a solu tion seems a long way off, partly because of deepen ing skepticism in Turkey and elsewhere that the brazen crime could have been carried out without the knowledge of Prince Mohammed, the king dom’s heir apparent. At a conference in Riyadh on Wednesday, the crown prince said the killing was a “heinous crime that cannot be justi fied” and warned against any efforts to “manipu late” the crisis and drive a wedge between Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are regional rivals but also diplomatic and business partners. On Thursday, Prince Mohammed attended the first meeting of a commit tee aiming to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence services after the killing of Khashoggi, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said. Khashoggi’s death has derailed the powerful prince’s campaign to proj ect a modern image of the ultraconservative country, instead highlighting the bru tal lengths to which some top officials in the government have gone to silence its crit ics. Khashoggi, who lived in self-imposed exile in the United States for nearly a year before his death, had written critically of Prince Mohammed’s crackdown on dissent. A statement by Saudi Attor ney General Saud al-Mojeb attributed the latest findings of a joint Turkish-Saudi inves tigation to information from Turkish counterparts. The evidence of Turkish inves tigators “indicates that the suspects in the incident had committed their act with a premeditated intention,” the Saudi government statement said. After the journalist disap peared, Saudi Arabia ini tially insisted Khashoggi had walked out of the consulate after visiting the building. 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