The Pentagon announced on Sunday 3,750 additional U.S. forces will be deployed to the southern border to provide support to Customs and Border Protection.
These additional troops, who according to CNN will be deployed for 90 days, will bring the total number of active duty forces supporting CBP at the border to roughly 4,350. The number of troops being sent to the U.S.-Mexico border is slightly up from the 3,500 figure reported last week.
Last month, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said the U.S. military’s support mission at the southern border had been extended until September at the urging of the Department of Homeland Security.
“That support includes a mobile surveillance capability through the end of September 2019, as well as the emplacement of approximately 150 miles of concertina wire between ports of entry,” the Pentagon statement said Sunday.
Troops were initially sent to the southern border ahead of the November midterm elections as a caravan of about 1,000 Central Americans seeking asylum moved through Mexico on the way to San Diego. Nearly 6,000 active duty service members were sent there in November.
The Trump administration has faced heat for not being completely forthcoming with its plans to send troops to the border. Last week, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., rebuked the Pentagon for failing to provide “full transparency” to the panel regarding the specifics of the Pentagon’s plans to provide additional support to CBP, including how many troops would be sent.
President Trump, who is at loggerheads with Democrats in Congress over his demand for $5.7 billion in border wall funding, tweeted Thursday that more troops were being sent to the border to stem the tide of illegal immigration.
“More troops being sent to the Southern Border to stop the attempted Invasion of Illegals, through large Caravans, into our Country. We have stopped the previous Caravans, and we will stop these also. With a Wall it would be soooo much easier and less expensive. Being Built!” he said.
Trump has threatened to use emergency powers to divert military resources in order to build a physical barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border if Congress can’t come to a long-term spending agreement to avert another partial government shutdown by mid-February.
