After saying he is ready to send 15,000 troops to the US-Mexico border to prevent a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants from entering the US territory, President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered the soldiers already deployed at the border to shoot the migrants if they threw rocks or stones at them.
At a White House briefing on his controversial "Operation Faithful Patriot" against what he described as "uncontrolled illegal immigration", Trump told the media that US-bound migrants heading northwards through southern Mexico had thrown rocks "viciously and violently" at Mexican police and would be met by force if they attempt the same with US troops.
"We're not going to put up with that. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back," Trump warned, adding: "I told them (troops) consider it (a rock) a rifle. When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexican military and police, I say consider it a rifle."
Ahead of next Tuesday's midterm congressional elections, Trump has escalated his daily rhetoric against the migrants, brazenly accusing the opposition Democrats of being complicit in wanting to allow floods of "tough people", "rapists" and other types of threats illegally into the US through the volatile border.
Critics have condemned Trump's threats to migrants and the decision to deploy thousands of troops to the US-Mexico frontier as an expensive political stunt with an eye on next week's elections.
The US president, however, has repeatedly claimed that he is acting against "an invasion" citing the dwindling group of a few thousand impoverished migrants trying to get north, but still far from the US border, according to an AFP report.
Trump also announced that he plans to amend the US policy of allowing people to claim political asylum at the border from next week, unless they have first gone through an official border post. Those caught at the border will be held in tent camps or other facilities until they can be deported or have their requests approved, he said.
Despite criticism that such a radical rethink to asylum policies could violate current US laws, Trump is in no mood to be convinced otherwise.
"This is totally legal. No, we're stopping people at the border. This is an invasion, and nobody is even questioning that," he said. "We'll be doing an executive order sometime next week," he said, without providing much detail.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has backed Trump's position while rejecting the conjectures about the move being a political stunt.
"The support that we provide to the Secretary for Homeland Security is practical support based on the request from the commissioner of Customs and Border Police," Mattis told the media, adding: "We don't do stunts in this department."
CGTN