美国国家公共电台 NPR Arizona Residents, Officials Skeptical As Border Troops Move In

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Parts of the caravan 1 have been reaching a town at the U.S.-Mexico border. You remember the caravan. Before the election, President Trump 2 warned of a, quote, "invasion" of asylum 3 seekers. At the border, NPR's Carrie Kahn now reports small numbers of people, quote, "trickling 4 in," seeking asylum - legally. Under President Trump's orders, more than 5,000 U.S. troops deployed 5 against the not-invasion. From KJZZ's Fronteras Desk in Tucson, Michel Marizco reports on what some are doing.

MICHEL MARIZCO, BYLINE 6: Newly elected Democratic Mayor Arturo Garino was busy with Election Day when the Army arrived in Nogales, Ariz.

ARTURO GARINO: Aesthetically 7 pleasing - it's not.

MARIZCO: The troops started erecting 8 coils of glistening 9 razor wire all along the tops of the U.S.-Mexico border wall that separates his small border town from its sister in Mexico.

GARINO: Razor wire, concertina wire is not what you want to see on a fence with two countries that have been friends and traded forever.

MARIZCO: President Donald Trump ordered the military to the border to shore up Customs and Border Protection. They're supposed to take over logistical and support jobs to free up Border Patrol agents and inspectors 10 at the ports. But Garino worries that this razor wire and military buildup could chill relations with neighboring Mexican shoppers.

GARINO: You know, 65 percent to 70 percent of our sales tax comes from people that cross to Nogales, Ariz., to shop.

LARRY DEWEY: Good afternoon, and welcome. I'm Colonel Larry Dewey, commander of the 16th Military Police Brigade out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

MARIZCO: Dewey and his counterparts in CBP explained that the main reason for the buildup was a caravan of mostly Central American migrants making their way up to the border from Mexico. The troops are not allowed to have any direct contact with the migrants. That's CBP's job.

DEWEY: Our mission is not to stop the caravan of migrants, rather we are here to support CBP personnel, so they can continue to serve, you know, law enforcement capacity and encourage and enable the lawful 11 and peaceful immigration.

MARIZCO: The caravaning 12 migrants reportedly intend to seek asylum in the U.S. through further west, at Tijuana. Still, CBP has brought in pallets of children's cereal, animal crackers 13, baby wipes and diapers to prepare for them should they come to Nogales. But officials like Petra Horne, acting 14 director of CBP's Tucson field office, still worry the migrants will overwhelm border agents.

PETRA HORNE: Our goal is, if individuals are wanting to seek asylum, they need to do so in an orderly fashion.

MARIZCO: Of the several hundred migrants on a caravan that arrived peacefully last spring, 93 percent passed an initial credible 15 fear interview with CBP and were allowed into the U.S. Horne worries the sheer number of migrants moving north means this time may be different.

HORNE: Well, I can tell you that in Nogales, where we sit today, this past week, we have had multiple groups trying to run through our vehicular lanes, so it is already happening.

MARIZCO: Standing 16 on a street corner in downtown Nogales, Vicente Valdez was talking about the military buildup with a friend. He is a U.S. citizen who was born in Mexico.

VICENTE VALDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

MARIZCO: "The U.S. has the right to secure its border," he says.

VALDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

MARIZCO: "But it's turning that into a nervous psychosis," he says. The first of the migrants have already arrived in the border city of Tijuana, where they will be told to wait in line at the port of entry to ask CBP officers for asylum. For NPR News, I'm Michel Marizco in Nogales, Ariz.