The Pentagon will begin sending as many as 1,500 active duty troops to help secure the southern border in the coming days, the White House said on Wednesday, putting in motion plans President Donald Trump laid out in executive orders shortly after he took office to crack down on illegal immigration.
The additional troops include 500 Marines, as well as Army helicopter crews and intelligence analysts. They will join 2,200 active duty troops and thousands of National Guard that were on the border prior to Mr Trump's inauguration this week.
Acting Defence Secretary Robert Salesses said the US military would help to provide flights for Department of Homeland Security-led deportations of more than 5,000 immigrants held by US authorities in El Paso, Texas and San Diego, California. But, officials cautioned, a final figure had not been determined and troop numbers would depend on factors including effects on military readiness and what the Department for Homeland Security requests.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Mr Trump had signed an executive order for the postings.
"This comes off his day one action to direct the Department of Defence to make homeland security a core mission of the agency," Ms Leavitt told reporters. "This is something President Trump campaigned on. The American people have been waiting for such a time as this for our Department of Defence to actually take homeland security seriously. This is a number one priority with the American people."
The troops are expected to support border patrol agents with logistics, transport and construction of barriers, AP reported. They have carried out similar duties in the past, when Mr Trump and former president Joe Biden sent troops to the border.
Troops are prohibited by law from carrying out law-enforcement duties in the US, but that may change. Mr Trump has directed through an executive order that the Secretary of Defence and Secretary of Homeland Security report back within 90 days if they think an 1807 law called the Insurrection Act should be invoked. That would allow those troops to be used in civilian law enforcement on US soil.
The widely expected announcement, coming in Mr Trump’s first week in office, was an early step in his long-touted plan to expand the use of the military along the border. In one of his first orders on Monday, Mr Trump directed the Secretary of Defence to come up with a plan to “seal the borders” and repel “unlawful mass migration”.
Mr Trump said during his inaugural address on Monday: “I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
