Elliot Williams (@elliotcwilliams), a Principal at the Raben Group, a national public affairs and strategic communications firm, was formerly a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Justice Department, and an Assistant Director at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The views expressed here are solely his. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) What's the one thing costlier than the President's divisive rhetoric about public safety? The President's actual approach to public safety.

Elliot Williams

As a caravan of migrants is proceeding northward through Mexico, the President has committed to sending at least 5,000, and as many as 15,000 , active duty troops to the border. The President's rationale for doing so has been that the caravan represents a safety threat to the United States, on account of the " bad people " or even unspecified " Middle Easterners " in the group.

This rhetoric, with which we have now become too familiar, isn't just racial and ethnic dog whistling. The border effort, according to the Washington Post citing Pentagon figures, could (combined with the cost of National Guard forces who have been at the border since April) cost more than $200 million

Obviously, the administration is playing up the threat at the border to stoke racial fears in advance of Election Day. Unfortunately, their doing so is going to lead to a massive squandering of the nation's funds. It is the latest example of how the administration's approach to public safety -- divide first; ask questions about the money later -- is motivating and justifying policy decisions that have had disastrous consequences.

Certainly, it is in our interest as a nation of laws to have a coherent means of addressing a potential influx of individuals at the border, including the fair and speedy processing of all asylum claims. However, sending thousands of troops to the border in response to a group, traveling on foot and currently hundreds of miles from the border who are estimated not to arrive until December, is a foolish waste of resources and military focus.