Homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said American soldiers have “no intention” of shooting migrants who try to cross into the US from Mexico – at least for the time being – but they will all be apprehended, as Donald Trump moves towards a plan to close the border. The Trump administration on Thursday announced it is planning to dispatch at least 800 active duty troops to the southern border, at the direction of a president who has sought to transform fears about immigration into electoral gains in the November midterms, as a caravan of thousands of migrants makes its way through Mexico.

The US defense secretary, Jim Mattis, is expected to sign an order sending the troops to the border, bolstering national guard forces already there. And on Thursday evening, in an interview with Fox News while visiting the border in Arizona, Nielsen said: “We do not have any intention right now to shoot at people, but they will be apprehended, however.” The government is weighing an order to deny even asylum applications at a fortified border, by asserting emergency powers that would almost certainly face challenges in the US courts, the Washington Post reported. Nielsen added: “But I also take my officer and agent, their own person safety, extraordinarily seriously. They do have the ability of force to defend themselves.”(theguardian)…[+]