President Trump has asked the Department of Defense for a detailed list of military and other facilities that could perform that function.
He has sent several tweets over the past week railing against illegal immigration and accusing Democrats of allowing “open borders, drugs and crime”.
The president declared on Twitter that Republicans should “go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws [on illegal migrants] NOW”.
He also threatened Mexico, saying the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was at risk unless it stopped the movement of migrants over the border.
He tweeted: “Mexico is doing very little, if not NOTHING, at stopping people from flowing into Mexico through their Southern Border, and then into the U.S. They laugh at our dumb immigration laws. They must stop the big drug and people flows, or I will stop their cash cow, NAFTA. NEED WALL!”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has condemned what he called “threatening or disrespectful attitudes” from President Trump.
President Trump has called sending troops to the Mexico border a “big step”, but both his predecessors also dispatched the National Guard there.
President Barack Obama sent some 1,200 soldiers to guard the boundary, while President George W. Bush deployed about 6,000 troops to help Border Patrol in what was called Operation Jump Start. Both deployments lasted for around a year.
The National Guard has begun withdrawing from Ferguson, Missouri, where the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by white policeman Darren Wilson has sparked days of protests.
The National Guard troops were deployed in Ferguson on August 18 when demonstrations became more violent.
On August 21, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon ordered their withdrawal when it appeared that tensions had eased.
Michael Brown, 18, was killed on 9 August after being stopped by a police officer for walking in the street.
Jay Nixon had called in the National Guard to support police operations, amid unrest driven by anger over Michael Brown’s death and the police response.
However, August 20 and 21 were relatively calm with only a few arrests made.
Despite the easing of tension, some caution violence could flare up again when Michael Brown is buried on August 25.
The National Guard troops were deployed in Ferguson when demonstrations became more violent over Michael Brown’s shooting
“Monday night will be a critical night,” St Louis based Bishop Edwin Bass told the Reuters news agency.
“The funeral could have a big impact on the mood of the community,” he said.
Officer Darren Wilson, has been suspended with pay and Michael Brown’s family and supporters have called for him to be prosecuted.
A grand jury panel of residents has begun hearing evidence in the case, though officials have not said when it will reach a decision.
Attorney General Eric Holder arrived in Ferguson on August 20 to talk to justice department officials leading a separate federal investigation into the killing.
Eric Holder, who is the first black US attorney general, said on August 21 that the “national outcry we have seen speaks to the mistrust and mutual suspicions that can take hold between law enforcement and certain communities”.
“I wanted the people of Ferguson to know I personally understood that mistrust,” he said.
“This attorney general and this department of justice stand with the people of Ferguson.”
Eric Holder added that while he had gone to Ferguson to “provide reassurance, in fact they gave me hope”.
The Army National Guard (ARNG) is the primary United States federal and state military reserve force.
The group is organized by the US Army and US Air Force.
Every US state and territory has a National Guard. The Army National Guard is divided into subordinate units stationed in each of the 50 states, three territories and the District of Columbia, and operates under their respective governors.
The Army National Guard is the primary United States federal and state military reserve force
The Army National Guard may be called up for active duty by the state or territorial governors to help respond to domestic emergencies and disasters, such as those caused by hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes, as well as civil disorder.
The District of Columbia Army National Guard is a federal militia, controlled by the President of the United States with authority delegated to the Secretary of Defense, and through him to the Secretary of the Army.
Guard units may also be ordered into active duty for up to two years by the US president during national emergency.
The National Guard has been sent to the town of Ferguson as protests escalate over the police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed an order to “help restore peace and order and to protect the citizens of Ferguson”.
The decision was made as police clashed with angry crowds shortly before a second night under curfew began.
Police in Ferguson, a suburb of St Louis, said they came under attack and had “no alternative” but to respond.
Captain Ron Johnson said protesters had thrown Molotov cocktails and bottles at security forces, and set up barricades before the five-hour curfew began at midnight on Sunday.
“For those who would claim that the curfew was what led to [the] violence, I will remind you this incident began three and a half hours before the curfew was to have started,” Ron Johnson told journalists in Ferguson on Monday.
Correspondents at the scene described seeing smoke clouds rise up as police began to disperse the protests on West Florissant Avenue, with a helicopter beaming down a spotlight.
Some of the demonstrators were spluttering and poured bottles of water into their eyes as they felt the effects of tear gas. Others sought cover from the unrest inside a fast food restaurant.
The killing of Michael Brown by a white policeman in a street on August 9 has inflamed racial tensions in the largely black suburb.
The National Guard has been sent to the town of Ferguson as protests escalate over the police shooting of black teenager Michael Brown (photo AP)
Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown after reportedly stopping him for walking in the street, disrupting traffic.
Governor Jay Nixon has criticized police for releasing surveillance video which apparently shows Michael Brown stealing some hours before his death.
Jay Nixon said the release of the footage “appeared to cast aspersions” on the dead man, saying “it made emotions raw”.
He also condemned the protesters: “These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served and to feel safe in their own homes.”
A preliminary post-mortem examination by the St Louis County Medical Examiner’s office on the day after Michael Brown’s death found he had been shot, police said, without disclosing how many times.
However, a preliminary private post-mortem report has since revealed that he was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, the New York Times reports.
The bullets did not appear to have been fired from very close range due to the lack of gunpowder on the victim’s body, forensic pathologist Michael Baden was quoted by the paper as saying.
Michael Baden flew to Missouri on Sunday to conduct a separate autopsy at the request of the family.
Officials last week confirmed that Darren Wilson was a six-year police veteran with no previous complaints against him. He has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting.
Texas Governor Rick Perry is sending 1,000 National Guard troops to the US border with Mexico to protect against what he described as criminals, human traffickers and drug cartels.
Republican Rick Perry said he had to act because the federal government had failed to secure the border.
He said the troops would work alongside law enforcement.
The move comes after a surge of unaccompanied Central American children crossed the border illegally.
More than 57,000 children, many fleeing gang violence and extreme poverty at home, have crossed the border since October.
In a news conference, Rick Perry said criminals would see the influx of children as an opportunity to be exploited. And he said that more than 203,000 “criminal aliens” had been held in Texas jails since 2008.
Texas Governor Rick Perry is sending 1,000 National Guard troops to the US border with Mexico
“There can be no national security without border security, and Texans have paid too high a price for the federal government’s failure to secure our border,” said Rick Perry, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 and has been named as a possible contender in 2016.
“The action I am ordering today will tackle this crisis head-on by multiplying our efforts to combat the cartel activity, human traffickers and individual criminals who threaten the safety of people across Texas and America.”
The Texas National Guard deployment will cost the state of Texas as much as $12 million per month.
President Barack Obama, a Democrat, has called for comprehensive immigration reform that would provide some path to legal status for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the US as well as strengthen security at the border.
In response to the recent flood of illegal-immigrant children, Barack Obama has asked Congress for $3.7 billion to hire extra immigration judges, provide drone surveillance of the border, and fund medical services. Republicans in Congress rejected the request.
In Texas, a spokesman for the Texas Democratic Party accused Rick Perry of “photo-op politics” that ignored the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
“Local law enforcement, elected officials, and faith and community leaders in the Rio Grande Valley have expressed concerned about militarizing the border, the need to create a short-term humanitarian solution, and solving the long-term need for comprehensive immigration reform,” Emmanuel Garcia said.
“Today, Governor Rick Perry ignored those voices.”
Ukraine’s parliament has passed a bill to create a 60,000-strong National Guard to bolster the country’s defenses ahead of Crimea referendum.
The vote came ahead of Sunday’s referendum in Crimea, now controlled by pro-Russian forces, on whether citizens want to join Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin insists Russia is not to blame for the crisis.
Ukraine’s parliament has voted to create a 60,000-strong National Guard to bolster the country’s defences
Meanwhile Germany’s Angela Merkel says Moscow faces “massive” political and economic damage if it refuses to change course. The US has also threatened action.
Russia was exploiting the weakness of neighboring Ukraine, rather than acting as a partner for stability, the German chancellor said on Thursday, adding that there was no military solution to the crisis.
The Russian military and pro-Russian armed men moved in to seize key sites in Crimea – an autonomous region of Ukraine whose population is mainly ethnic Russian – in late February after the fall of President Viktor Yanukovych.
The first deadly signs of Hurricane Sandy’s monstrous power were revealed as it barreled towards land on Monday – with snow falling, rivers breaching and floodwaters submerging cities across the East Coast.
Hurricane Sandy, which forecasters said could be the largest in U.S. history, strengthened overnight to nearly 1,000 miles wide with winds in excess of 85 miles per hour as it accelerated towards Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York.
The worst of the Category 1 storm is expected to bring a “life-threatening” surge of seawater up to 11 feet high, coastal hurricane winds and a barrage of heavy snow in the Appalachian Mountains.
Already the hurricane is showing its breathtaking power as hundreds of thousands of residents scrambled to higher ground, public transport systems shut down and thousands of flights across the country were cancelled.
The Hudson River which connects New Jersey and Manhattan’s west side has breached – already inflicting more damage than Hurricane Irene last year.
Across Norfolk, Virginia, residents were knee-deep in floodwaters as they travelled to work or scrambled to stock up on last-minute groceries. In the southeast of the state, tides are expected to run between five and eight feet above normal.
Floodwaters were also seeping into New York, with homes in Gilgo, Long Island becoming quickly submerged.
In Boone, North Carolina, snow began falling at 8:00 a.m.; the Appalachian mountain town is expected to suffer a miserable few days with snow, rain and temperatures struggling to get out of the 30s. Up to eight inches of snow is expected but, in places of higher elevation, there may be as many as 12.
In Oak Orchard, Delaware, rescue efforts by the National Guard and local authorities were already underway for residents who had failed to heed the mandatory evacuation issued over the weekend.
Hurricane Sandy has already killed at least 66 people – including 51 in Haiti – in the Caribbean before pounding U.S. coastal areas with rain.
But the New Jersey shore is expected to take the brunt of the massive weather front as Sandy hits near Atlantic City, which has already suffered heavy flooding, on Monday night and churns north, with 50 million people in its path.
Nine U.S. states have declared states of emergency with the National Guard poised to swoop in, and President Barack Obama has warned the nation to brace itself.
“This is a serious and big storm,” Barack Obama said after a briefing at the federal government’s storm response center in Washington.
“We don’t yet know where it’s going to hit, where we’re going to see the biggest impacts.”
National Guard and local authorities are underway for East Coast residents who had failed to heed the mandatory evacuation issued ahead of Hurricane Sandy
Between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. on Monday, winds increased by 10 mph to a maximum of 85 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Landfall is expected between late Monday and early Tuesday, with Google providing a tracking map to show the storm’s progress.
Forecasters said Sandy, dubbed Frankenstorm, could surge to a “super storm” as it joins an Arctic jet stream, sparking flash floods and snow storms – and making it unlike anything seen over the eastern United States in decades.
“The last time we saw anything like this was never,” Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy said on Sunday.
“I don’t know how to say it any clearer than that it is the largest threat to human life our state has experienced in anyone’s lifetime.”
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie added: “Don’t be stupid. Get out!”
New York and other cities and towns have closed their transit systems and ordered mass evacuations from low-lying areas ahead of the storm surge.
Classes were cancelled on Monday for more than two million public school students in New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore, while universities and government offices in states including Washington and New Jersey were shut down.
All U.S. stock markets will be closed on Monday and possibly Tuesday, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange said late on Sunday, reversing an earlier plan that would have kept electronic trading going on Monday.
Hurricane Sandy forced Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to cancel some campaign stops and fuelled concern it could disrupt early voting – encouraged by the candidates this year more than ever – before the November 6 election.
The United Nations, Broadway theaters, New Jersey casinos, schools up and down the Eastern Seaboard, and myriad corporate events were also being shut down on Monday.
Residents along the New Jersey coast were warned they may not survive Hurricane Sandy if they do not evacuate low-lying areas.
The National Weather Service issued the stark warning last night as the massive weather front surged closer to the East Coast.
A statement read: “If you are reluctant [to evacuate], think about your loved ones…think about the rescue/recovery teams who will rescue you if you are injured or recover your remains if you do not survive.”
About 50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada are in the path of the 1,000-mile-wide monster, which is expected to topple trees, damage buildings, cause power outages and trigger heavy flooding.
Many workers planned to stay home on Monday, while thousands of flights into and out of the U.S. northeast were grounded on as airports closed, stranding passengers from Hong Kong to Europe.
The massive storm threatens to bring a near halt to air travel for at least two days in a key region for both domestic and international flights.
Frankestorm is also expected to inflict power outages along the east coast, with officials already expressing fears that homes and businesses could be without power for days.
“We could be talking about weeks,”Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy warned.
Officials told residents to head for higher ground as evacuations were ordered on the East Coast including a mandatory one for New York City which saw Mayor Michael Bloomberg advise 375,000 people to leave low-lying areas.
Buses were no longer running and flights in and out of the city cancelled. More than 7,000 flights have been cancelled so far – already leaving a backlog of tens of thousands.
The New York subway closed at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday for only the second time in history, meaning that almost 12 million people will be prevented from taking their usual route to work.
The MTA said the duration of the service suspension is “unknown” and that “service will be restored only when it is safe to do so, after careful inspections of all equipment and tracks”.
Transport officials warned: “Even with minimal damage this is expected to be a lengthy process.”
The New York Stock Exchange said on Sunday it is putting in place contingency plans and will announce later when the trading floor will reopen.
It is the first time in 27 years the NYSE has been forced to close due to the weather.
Police is investigating the shooting rampage at an IHOP restaurant in Carson City, Nevada.
The incident happened on Tuesday morning and left four people dead, including the shooter, and eight persons wounded.
Investigators are now trying to determine whether the man targeted a group of National Guard personnel in the restaurant.
Twelve people have been shot in the rampage, five were National Guard members who were sitting together, all in uniform, in the back of the restaurant. Two of the service members – a man and a woman – died, according to police.
According to the investigators it appears the shooter – Eduardo Sencion, 33, a Carson City resident who worked in nearby Tahoe and had no criminal history – could have targeted the Guard members, who were sitting in the restaurant and they were in uniform.
Eduardo Sencion, the alleged shooter at an IHOP restaurant in Carson City, Nevada, killed 4 people and wounded another 8
Carson City Sheriff Kenny Furlong said during a news conference last evening:
“Information suggests at this point in time that the National Guard members were sitting all the way into the restaurant along the southeast side and that he entered through the front do ors and traveled all the way through the restaurant to the back area,” sheriff Furlong said.
“Obviously when five out of 11 of the victims are uniformed National Guard members, that’s taking a priority interest in our agency.”
“Investigators are still trying to determine what motive there might have been for the shooting rampage.”
“There has been some suggestion by his family members that there is some mental health issues that we are going to have to look into,” the sheriff added.
Eduardo Sencion allegedly walked into the restaurant shortly before 9 a.m. brandishing an AK47 and started shooting, then ended it by shooting himself in the head, police said.
The shooter was taken to a hospital where he died three hours later.
According to the Carson City Chief Deputy Jack Freer, the people wounded at the IHOP were taken to Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno and a hospital in Carson City, but their conditions were unknown.
Eyewitnesses described a scene of horror and chaos after Eduardo Sencion pulled up at the IHOP in a blue minivan just before 9 a.m. and ran into the restaurant, already firing his assault weapon.
“All I heard was about a heavy eight seconds of automatic gunfire,” said Nick Teply, who was at the McDonald’s drive-through next door.
“I just froze trying to identify which direction it was coming from.
“I saw people running into the casino and I saw people panicked so I panicked.
“I heard another burst go off and then I was, it was, ‘get the hell out of there.’”
According to the Carson City sheriff, at least 11 agencies, both federal and state, worked the crime scene.
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