Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, was expected to sign papers in the coming days to send the troops. They will include engineers to help with the construction of tents and fencing, doctors for medical support, and potentially some personnel to operate drones along the border, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the deployment had not yet been finished.

American immigration law says that people arriving at ports of entry on the United States border have a right to seek asylum, as do those apprehended crossing the border without authorization, if they are able to demonstrate a “credible fear” of returning home. But President Border Wall, who has no idea how the law actually works, has painted those fleeing violence and persecution, and those simply thumbing their noses at immigration laws for yuks, as one and the same. “To those in the Caravan, turnaround, [sic] we are not letting people into the United States illegally,” Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday. “Go back to your Country and if you want, apply for citizenship like millions of others are doing!” (As many have pointed out, it’s unlikely that the Spanish-speaking asylum seekers have the Wi-Fi necessary to read this message, which almost makes it appear as though it was actually addressed to his base.)

Human-rights and immigrant advocacy groups have unsurprisingly panned Trump’s transparent attempt to instill fear in voters just before the midterm elections. “The approach of a caravan of migrants that includes refugees fleeing persecution and violence is not a crisis, but President Trump is yet again spreading hatred and fear, hoping to score political points by making Americans fear refugees,” Mike Breen, the chief executive of Human Rights First, told The New York Times. Meanwhile, when asked if “there was any scenario [in which] people [who] force their way across the border could be shot at,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told Fox News, “We do not have any intention right now to shoot at people,” emphasis ours, because that sure sounds like a roundabout way of saying Some people might get shot—who knows!

If you would like to receive the Levin Report in your inbox daily, click here to subscribe.

Trump’s trade war is totally going according to plan! Nothing is f--ked!

When Donald Trump launched his trade war with China, he promised that the pain of slapping tariffs on billions of dollars worth of imports—and the ensuing retaliatory levies on U.S. goods—would all be worth it for the avalanche of jobs to which the putative measures would lead. And for once in his presidency, he may have been right! There’s a good chance new jobs will come out of all of this . . . in China. Per *The New York Times:*