Border mission extended

White House plans to extend mission beyond Dec. 15 end

The Trump administration plans to extend the military mission beyond Dec. 15, keeping nearly 6,000 active-duty service members from their normal posts through the holidays.

The Trump administration is expected to extend the military mission along the U.S. border with Mexico, a White House official said Wednesday, likely keeping troops away from their normal posts through the holidays.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not yet been announced, said the assignment was expected to last at least 45 days beyond its scheduled end date of Dec. 15.

That decision would affect almost 6,000 active duty military personnel now stationed in southern areas of Texas, Arizona and California, lengthening a mission that critics have described as an unnecessary ploy to galvanize anti-immigrant sentiment.

News of a possible extension, which was first reported by NPR, comes days after a dramatic confrontation at a border crossing outside San Diego.

Border Patrol and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials this week defended authorities’ use of tear gas against migrants, including women and children, who tried to rush the border fence at California’s San Ysidro crossing on Sunday.

At least 5,000 migrants, many of them members of a caravan that has made its way through Mexico in recent weeks, are now waiting in Tijuana just across from San Diego to request asylum in the United States.

Even before the incident at San Ysidro, the Pentagon had suggested an extension might be in the works.

“Some of those troops certainly will be home (for the holidays), I would anticipate they would be,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters last week. “But some troops may not be or some new troops may be assigned to new missions. … This is a dynamic situation.”

As of Wednesday, DHS has not asked the Pentagon to extend the timeline of its border mission, said Lt. Col. Jamie Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, asked last week about the timetable for the troop deployment, said she had spoken to Mattis and had “no doubt” the Department of Defense would “continue to be our partners in this mission until it is resolved.”

An announcement on the extension is expected as early as Friday.