Thousands of troops to leave border

WASHINGTON — The number of active-duty troops sent to the U.S.-Mexican border by President Donald Trump just before the midterm election in response to a caravan of Central American migrants will start being reduced this week, U.S. officials said Monday.

Active-duty troops began arriving at the border in early November for an initial 45-day deployment in response to the caravan, which at one point numbered about 7,000 people, including many families with children.

About 2,200 troops will be pulled out before the holidays, the officials said, shrinking a rare domestic deployment that was viewed by critics as a political stunt and a waste of military resources.

That will leave about 3,000 active-duty troops in Texas, Arizona and California, mainly composed of military police and helicopter transport crews who are assisting border patrol agents. There also will still be about 2,300 members of the National Guard who were sent to the border region as part of a separate deployment that started in April.

The active-duty troops, numbering about 5,200 as of Monday, were initially scheduled to stay until Dec. 15. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis extended the mission to the end of January at the request of the Department of Homeland Security.

A report to Congress last month estimated the cost of the military deployment to the border at $210 million.