{"id":13208,"date":"2018-11-03T11:32:09","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T11:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=13208"},"modified":"2018-11-03T11:32:09","modified_gmt":"2018-11-03T11:32:09","slug":"trump-backtracks-on-suggestion-u-s-troops-could-fire-on-migrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=13208","title":{"rendered":"Trump backtracks on suggestion U.S. troops could fire on migrants"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump on Friday backtracked from his suggestion a day earlier that American troops sent to the U.S. border with Mexico would be free to fire on migrants who throw rocks at them, saying that rock-throwers would only be arrested.
\n\u201cThey won\u2019t have to fire. What I don\u2019t want is I don\u2019t want these people throwing rocks,\u201d Trump told reporters outside the White House. \u201cIf they do that with us, they\u2019re going to be arrested for a long time.\u201d
\nTrump\u2019s rhetoric on shooting migrants drew criticism from human rights groups that said he was stoking fear ahead of next week\u2019s congressional elections. Calling migrants a national security threat \u201cis as absurd as it is cruel,\u201d advocacy group Human Rights First said in a statement.
\nIn his comments, Trump suggested the military could fire on migrants who cross the border illegally if they throw rocks at troops.
\n\u201cThey want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back. … I told them to consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks like they did at the Mexico military police, I say: Consider it a rifle,\u201d Trump said.
\nThe Nigerian army on Friday used Trump\u2019s remarks to justify opening fire at Shi\u2019ite Muslim protesters earlier in the week. Authorities have reported only a few killed but a Shi\u2019ite group said the toll was more than 40.
\nAfter Trump\u2019s remarks on Thursday saying stone-throwers should be treated as if they were carrying rifles, the Nigerian Army posted a note on Twitter with a video of Trump\u2019s remarks, adding: \u201cPlease Watch and Make your Deductions.\u201d
\nU.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before departing on a campaign trip on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., November 2, 2018. REUTERS\/Kevin Lamarque
\nThe U.S. president has hardened his stance on immigration in a bid to rouse his political base ahead of the elections. His Republican party is in an uphill fight to maintain control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday, although it is expected to pick up seats in the Senate.
\nThe Pentagon said on Monday it was deploying more than 5,200 troops to the border at Trump\u2019s direction to confront a caravan of men, women and children traveling through Mexico as they flee violence and poverty in Central America. Trump has characterized it as an \u201cinvasion\u201d of migrants.
\nMexico has said 2,800 to 3,000 people are in the caravan, which left Honduras in mid-October, although many are expected to drop off before reaching the U.S. border.
\nTrump also said on Thursday his administration was finalizing a plan to block immigrants who do not come into the United States at a legal port of entry from applying for asylum, although federal law allows any immigrant in the United States to do so.
\nStill, migrant caravans have pressed on. On Friday, a smaller caravan from El Salvador crossed through a river to enter the Mexico\u2019s southern state of Chiapas.
\nBy Reuters<\/strong>
\nReporting by Roberta Rampton; additional reporting by Carlos Garcia Rawlins in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, and Paul Carsten in Nigeria; Writing by Makini Brice and David Alexander; editing by Dan Grebler, James Dalgleish and David Gregorio<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump on Friday backtracked from his suggestion a day earlier that American troops sent to the U.S. border with Mexico would be free to fire on migrants who throw rocks at them, saying that rock-throwers would only be arrested. \u201cThey won\u2019t have to fire. What I don\u2019t want is I don\u2019t want these […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":12997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}