United States President Donald Trump raised eyebrows today after he announced at a press conference that he wants to deploy military forces at the U.S.-Mexico border. Trump was speaking after a summit with leaders from three Baltic states on Tuesday.

Donald Trump said the U.S.-Mexico border is unprotected by laws and the U.S. has 'weak border laws',  adding that he had spoken to Mexico to stop illegal migrants attempting to cross into the U.S. He said, "We don't have laws. We have catch and release and people come after many years for court cases except that they virtually never come back".

He further claimed to prepare its military forces to guard the borders after consulting Former Major General of U.S. Army (Ret.) General David Morris.

Trump's statement reportedly took many Pentagon officials by surprise, in that they knew of his desire to ratchet up border security, but are not sure what he meant exactly, according to multiple Defense Department and military officials.

The White House had to clarify later in the day the president meant the deployment of U.S. National Guards when he referred to deploying the military to the border as a U.S. law prohibits the enforcement of U.S. laws by the U.S. Armed Forces on American soil. If any branch of the armed forces in indeed deployed then they would be restricted to reconnaissance and intelligence gathering missions.

But, Trump's  proclamation of sending troops to the border is not the first time the U.S.-Mexico border will see the presence of the U.S. National Guards.  The CNN notes that under President George W. Bush, a border deployment of the National Guard known as Operation Jump Start started in 2006 and lasted two years. The operation sent more than 6,000 troops to California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to repair secondary border fence, construct nearly 1,000 metal barriers and fly border protection agents by helicopter to intercept immigrants trying to enter illegally.

In 2010, the Obama administration deployed National Guard troops as part of a border protection plan. Officials in 2010 said up to 1,200 National Guard troops would be in place along the US-Mexico border for up to a year to assist US Customs and Border Protection with surveillance and intelligence gathering while the agency worked to hire additional staff.

President Trump had earlier blamed the porous borders of U.S.-Mexico for unrestricted movement of migrants and drug peddlers in the United States. Trump also spoke Tuesday about the caravan of migrants from Central America currently moving through Mexico who plan to turn themselves in and request asylum once they make it to the US border. He has demanded a halt to the caravan in a series of tweets.

"The big Caravan of People from Honduras, now coming across Mexico and heading to our "Weak Laws" Border, had better be stopped before it gets there. Cash cow NAFTA is in play, as is a foreign aid to Honduras and the countries that allow this to happen. Congress MUST ACT NOW!" Trump tweeted.

Earlier, President Trump had vowed to keep pushing for the funding of an 'anti-migration' border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 04, 2018 09:13 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).