Rights groups decry Trump's plan to send military to guard border

Groups say proposition to send military to US-Mexico outskirt is a 'demonstration of hostility' and will 'prompt catastrophe'.

Rights groups have discredited US President Donald Trump's intend to send the military to watch the US-Mexico outskirt as a "demonstration of hostility".

"It's a demonstration of animosity honestly, on the off chance that you station the military at your edge what does that say in regards to your association with the neighboring nation," Andrea Guerrero, the executive director of rights group, Alliance San Diego, disclosed to Al Jazeera.

"The military's presence on the border will raise the strain between the two nations and our dread both here and in Mexico that will prompt disaster," she said.

Trump made the declaration at a White House lunch meeting with Baltic delegates on Tuesday, saying that "until the point that we can have a wall and legitimate security, we will monitor our border with our military".

"I talked with [Defence Secretary James] Mattis, we will do a few things militarily," he said.

"We can't have individuals streaming into our nation unlawfully, vanishing, and by the way never appearing for court."

The proposition has realized feedback from those on the two sides of the political aisle, and in addition from rights groups who pointed that an outskirt divider and fence as of now exists on a significant part of the US-Mexico border.

"He says we require these troops since we don't have a divider - that isn't valid, we do. We have 700 miles of a divider," Guerrero said.

"We are not at war with Mexico and there's no military danger confronting us. There's no justification for the military," she added.

Tara Tabassi, a coordinator for the rights group War Resisters League, which looks to end war and its causes, said that its wrong to state that the US-Mexico border isn't already militarised.

"Let it not be mistaken, the US-Mexico border is already militarised, and the expansion of warriors and a wall will just serve to further harass, criminalise, and endanger refugees and migrants fleeing economic and political violence created and sustained by US policies and intervention," Tabassi revealed to Al Jazeera.

"Trump's call just upholds the long-standing practice with regards to utilizing US military personnel as a tool of white supremacy to protect profits over people," she included.

As indicated by US media, many defence officials were ignorant of Trump's intend to militarise the border and didn't know precisely what he meant by the comments.

Trump likewise repeated his threat to haul the US out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada.

(SOURCE: AL JAZEERA )