The Pentagon is sending around 3,000 active troops to the US-Mexico border as President Donald Trump tries to close illegal immigrants and fulfill the central promise of his campaign, U.S. officials said.
His Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegses, ordered elements of the Striker Brigade Combat Team and General Support Air Battalion for missions, the Pentagon announced. The military will arrive along the border nearly 2,000 miles in the coming weeks.
The Department of Defense statement did not specify the size of the deployment, but it brought about 3,000 people to about 3,000 by staff who were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Strikers are medium armored wheeled personnel carriers.
Already, a total of around 9,200 US troops are on the tropical border, with 4,200 deployed under federal orders and about 5,000 National Guard troops deployed under the governor’s control.
The new forces “will strengthen and expand current border security work to seal borders and protect the integrity of US territory,” the Pentagon said.
Trump is determined to close the border and expand the military’s role in his efforts to send detained immigrants back to his home country.
Military men have been sent to the border almost continuously since the 1990s, helping them deal with immigration, drug trafficking and cross-border crime.
The Washington Post first reported on new developments.
Mexican soldiers were mobilized to the US border on Tuesday to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.
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