The Pentagon announced yesterday it is sending 3,750 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, raising the total number of active duty troops deployed to 4,350.
The Pentagon said, “Additional units are being deployed for 90 days, and we will continue to evaluate the force composition required to meet the mission to protect and secure the southern border.”
The announcement comes as a congressional committee seeks to reach a deal on border security funding to avert another partial government shutdown.
President Trump has hinted at declaring a national emergency if the deal doesn’t include funds for a border wall. The lack of an agreement on funding for a border wall closed portions of the government for 35 days.
Trump ordered the deployments in October 2018 in response to the impending arrival at the border of a caravan of asylum-seekers from Central America.
The announcement comes on the heels of the revelation of three new migrant caravans heading towards the U.S. border from Central America.
Top Pentagon official John Rood said last week, “Current information shows that a caravan of over 12,000 people — there’s three that we are tracking, that the DHS is tracking en route, one that is over 12,000 by the latest estimate.”
