Sending thousands of active-duty troops to the Mexican border makes no sense, according to a former spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, who said “this is not a needed deployment.”

“It doesn’t on a couple of levels,” retired Marine Col. David Lapan said on CNN Wednesday night, when asked if the mission to send as many as 15,000 active-duty troops to the border makes sense militarily. “One, this issue about very dangerous people, again, no evidence that that’s the case. Certainly many women and children involved. Are there males involved? Certainly. But if you’re making the case that some of these people may be dangerous, well, one, the Customs and Border Protection folks that work the border every day are used to dealing with people who are potentially dangerous.”