US President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of National Guard troops to the Mexican border. Trump has said the situation at the southern border has "now reached a point of crisis."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/M. Ngan
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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed a proclamation deploying National Guard troops to the Mexican border.
The White House said the move would tighten security at the southern border and help local officials combat drug crime and illegal immigration.
Trump said in a memorandum to Cabinet members that the "situation at the border has now reached a point of crisis."
The document orders the US secretary of defense to support the Department of Homeland Security in securing the Mexican border and halting the flow of drugs and people. It also orders both agency heads to report back to the president within 30 days to outline what further security measures can be taken.
Trump said that "lawlessness" at the southern border was "fundamentally incompatible with the safety, security, and sovereignty of the American people."
National Guard in supporting role
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters earlier on Wednesday that National Guard troops would not be involved in enforcement but would support border officials until Trump's promised wall is built.
"The president has directed that the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security work together with our governors to deploy the National Guard to our southwest border to assist the Border Patrol," Nielsen said.
She added that, despite steps taken by the Trump administration, the levels of drug smuggling, illegal immigration and gang activity on the US-Mexico border continued to be "unacceptable."
The harrowing journey of a smuggled migrant
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Congressional approval needed
Trump will still need congressional approval before National Guard troops make their way to the border, as federal law prohibits active-duty soldiers to be deployed inside the US without authorization from Congress.
According to White House officials, the administration has been seeking to warm congressional leaders to the idea for several weeks.
US presidents have twice deployed National Guard troops at the southern border in the past 12 years. Nielsen said the White House was considering a similar model to the 2006 order signed by President George W. Bush, which assigned some 6,000 troops to assist US Customs and Border Protection personnel.
Four years later, President Barack Obama sent around 1,200 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico to bolster efforts against drug smuggling and illegal immigration.
Trump's border frustrations
The president has become increasingly frustrated by slow action on the southern border, particularly when it comes to building the wall.
"Until we can have a wall and proper security we're going to be guarding our border with the military," Trump told reporters said on Tuesday, scolding what he described as the "horrible" US laws that had left the border poorly protected.
The president last month grudgingly signed a spending bill that included only $1.6 billion (€1.3 billion) in funding for the border wall — a fraction of the $25 billion he had hoped to secure. That money can also only be used to fortify existing segments of the wall, rather than build new sections.
The president has broached using the Pentagon's budget to finance the building of the wall, despite rules that prohibit spending that hasn't been authorized by Congress. Trump has sought to bypass congressional approval, arguing that the border wall is a national security concern, albeit with no success of yet.
Films about the US-Mexican border
Since Donald Trump promised to build his wall, the border between the US and Mexico has come into the limelight. The border region has also been the focus of these spectacular movies.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/TBM
John Wayne at war
The US and Mexico went to war in the mid-19th century over the state of Texas, which had belonged to Mexico but was then annexed by the US. This long-running border dispute was often portrayed by Hollywood in westerns that detailed violent skirmishes between American settlers and the Mexican army. Among the most spectacular was "Alamo" (1960), starring John Wayne and Richard Widmark.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/TBM
Dietrich and the border
In 1958, Marlene Dietrich made an impressive guest appearance in the brilliant frontier thriller "Touch of Evil." Director Orson Welles, who played a lead role in the film, made the border region between Mexico and the US the scene of corruption, drug trafficking and crime.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/IFTN
The Rio Grande
When John Wayne appeared in "Alamo," the great era of the American western was almost over. But when the genre boomed in the 1950s, many westerns were set in the borderland between the US states of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona on one side and Mexico on the other. A symbolic landmark was the border river, the Rio Grande, namesake for director John Ford's legendary western from 1950.
However, the border between the two countries managed to retain its prominence in numerous later westerns. The region played an especially prominent role in Sam Peckinpah's "Wild Bunch" (1969), a blood-soaked wild west epic that tells of lawlessness in a forgotten land.
Image: Imago/Entertainment Pictures
Modern variations
The American director Robert Anthony Rodriguez has a passion for the border region, which is perhaps due to his Mexican roots. Many of his films play with the collision of cultures in this borderland. His 1996 film "From Dusk Till Dawn," for example, saw Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney play bank robbing brothers who hightail it to the Mexican border.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives
No place to grow old
"No Country for Old Men," the 2007 Oscar-winning film directed by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, is about drugs, mafia, murder, and fraud. It also plays out in a dangerous place where death is common and few grow old - at the US-Mexican border.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Paramount Pictures
South of Albuquerque
Albuquerque in New Mexico is the setting for the immensely popular TV series "Breaking Bad," which was produced between 2008 and 2013. The series again repeats the theme of so many stories that are situated in the region: drugs. And so, not far away, a short distance south of Albuquerque, lies the legendary border.
Image: Frank Ockenfels 3/Sony Pitures
The dark side of trade
If a movie is titled "Trade," then it's probably either a comedy or a drama. The Bavarian director Marco Kreuzpaintner picked for his 2007 drama, telling the story of Mexican children who cross the border to the US as part of human sex slave trafficking. Hollywood star Kevin Kline played the lead role.
Image: picture-alliance/kpa
Drug wars at the border
"Sicario" examines the impact of the drug wars on the border area between Arizona and Mexico. Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve made the fast-paced drug thriller in 2015 with Benicio del Toro in the lead. It was filmed in southern Arizona.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Lionsgate/Richard Foreman Jr.
Narcotic attraction
The issue of cross-border drug dealing seems to have a magical pull on directors. British Hollywood filmmaker Ridley Scott tried his hand in 2013 with a thriller from the border region. "The Counselor," starring Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender, was filmed in El Paso, Texas and in Spain.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Crime and politics
It was director Steven Soderbergh who rang in the era of drug war films 17 years ago. In "Traffic," he portrays the complex relationship between the police, drug gangs, politicians and authorities - whose ties to each other are all inextricably interwoven across the border.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives
Detective stories at the border
In addition to westerns and drug thrillers, numerous detective stories and murder mysteries have been set at the US-Mexican border. A classic from the genre is Robert Altman's 1973 film "The Long Goodbye," based on a novel by Raymond Chandler. The film was shot in California, but also in Tepoztlán in Mexico.
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives/Impress
The border in times of globalization
Star Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu filmed the multiple narrative drama "Babel" in 2006. It traces the interlaced fates of various people from different regions in the world. "Babel" is a cinematic parable about the question of what the border means to people in times of globalization.
Image: picture alliance/kpa
Border comedy
There isn't much to laugh about at the border. Most of the films that deal with US-Mexican ties tend to be serious. But in 2004, James L. Brooks made the comedy "Spanglish" about a cliché encounter between a wealthy American (Adam Sandler) and a Mexican house cleaner (Paz Vega).
Image: picture-alliance/United Archives
Immigration drama
In recent years, more and more films have been made about immigration and poverty in the region. Last year, the German-French-Mexican co-production "Soy Nero" premiered at the Berlinale film festival. Director Rafi Pitts, with roots in Iran, tells the story of a young Mexican who crosses the border to the US in search of a better life.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Neue Visionen
A modern classic
Perhaps the most impressive film about South-to-North migration was made by Cary Fukunaga in 2009. "Sin Nombre" portrays the fate of several young people from Mexico who are trying to make it to the US. While some are trying to escape criminal gangs from their hometowns, others are hoping for heaven on earth.
