US President: Military will shoot back at migrants who throw rocks at soldiers

"If they want to throw rocks at American soldiers, our military will attack back. I told the soldiers that they should treat bricks and rocks like rifles. When migrants throw rocks at them like they did to the Mexican police, consider it an act of shooting at American soldiers,"AFPquoted US President Donald Trump yesterday announced at the White House.

Trump said that a caravan of thousands of Hondurans had attacked Mexican police "aggressively and violently" in recent days, while criticizing Democrats for wanting to open the border to a wave of "criminals and rapists".

The US President announced that Washington will end the policy of allowing immigrants to apply for political asylum at the border, unless they enter the US through official ports of entry. Those who cross the border illegally will be held in tent camps until they are deported or their asylum applications are approved.

The Pentagon announced on October 30 that it would deploy 5,200 troops to the southwest border this week to deal with a caravan of 7,000 Honduran migrants trying to reach the US by land. President Trump had previously called the migrant caravan a “national emergency” and announced that he would cut off aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador for failing to stop them.

The US military also deployed three helicopter companies equipped with high-tech sensors and night vision equipment to monitor the border, along with several military police units on patrol. US defense officials confirmed that the troops were mainly on support missions and did not participate in law enforcement activities, but were still fully armed.