Donald Trump announced his plans to send the National Guard to the southwest border until his long-promised border wall is built.

“We’re going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step. We really haven’t done that before, or certainly not very much before,” he said recently.

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However, what the president failed to tell us is that the National Guard, if sent to the border by a federal directive, under the law,

cannot arrest or act like law enforcement

.

The reality of the matter is that sending the National Guard to the border without much enforcement power is merely a symbolic move, and not a real shot at accomplishing the original goal set by the president: to reduce undocumented crossings at the southwest border. Not to mention that illegal entry at the southwest border is at its lowest level in nearly half a century.

In addition, the Department of Justice also announced that the practice dubbed "catch and release," a mechanism used when undocumented immigrants are caught at the border and are released while awaiting an immigration hearing, will now be faded out, as stricter anti-immigration policies are being implemented instead.

If immigrants aren’t released while they await their immigration hearings, they need to be detained in detention centers while the U.S. government foots the bill, adding to our national debt as a result.

Whether the president would like to admit it or not, this is clearly a political move to try and please his base as a replacement for his failure to successfully deliver on his campaign promise of building a wall with Mexico.

Further, with little to show on what he has done during his administration and with the economy undergoing its slowest growth in the last six months, it's clear that President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE is trying to stage his own immigration reality show to distract people on the less than impressive job he has done as president.

And of course, we can’t forget the weight on his shoulders from the Russia investigation. Now, more than ever, President Trump is doing all he can to distract the American people from the real issues at hand.

Just this week, the FBI raided the office and hotel room of the president’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as part of a fraud and campaign finance investigation.

In addition, Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE’s investigation is looking into a $150,000 donation from a Ukrainian billionaire made to a Trump charity, which has previously admitted it violated tax law and helped Trump on a personal level during the campaign.

“It’s an attack on what we all stand for, so when I saw this and when I heard it, I heard it like you did, I said that is really now in a whole new level of unfairness,” Trump said as a reaction to the latest developments in the Mueller’s investigation.

Further, he repeated his claim that the investigation is a “witch hunt” and declined to answer whether he would now fire Mueller. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. “I think it’s disgraceful, and so do a lot of other people.”

With evidence that the Russians did everything in their power to influence our last presidential election and spent millions of dollars on fabricating fake news and advertising them on Facebook, President Trump should be focusing in ensuring this never happens again.

So, Mr. President, here’s an idea: Instead of building a wall with Mexico, which would cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars, we should be focusing on building a cyber wall with Russia.

Only then, can we ensure that the United State of America continues to be one of the most vibrant democracies in the world.

Jose Aristimuño is the CEO of NOW Strategies, former deputy national press secretary of the Democratic Party and served as director of Hispanic Media for former Gov. Martin O’Malley’s presidential campaign.