Statewide Iowa — (RI) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he supports the troop buildup on the U-S border with Mexico as a caravan of several thousand Central American migrants approaches.
Initially, 800 active duty soldiers were going to be dispatched to the border. Now, the number is over five-thousand troops, combined with another two-thousand-plus National Guard members who were already assigned there.
More than 73-hundred troops should be at the border before Election Day, which is reportedly more American soldiers than are now deployed in Iraq and Syria combined. Grassley says the U-S would welcome these people — if they’d follow the rules.
Grassley says he wouldn’t want anyone who’s already in the U-S legally to be “displaced,” but he believes there’s plenty of room — and opportunity — here for these migrants, should they choose to enter legally.
The troops are being deployed to three main staging areas in Texas, California and Mexico for what’s being called Operation Faithful Patriot. The armed troops include medical personnel, aviation units and engineering battalions, with one report saying they’re hauling 22 miles worth of barbed wire.
