Crossing into Mexico
White House sends 5,000 in response to ‘invasion’
The Trump administration is preparing to send thousands of additional U.S. troops to the border with Mexico, U.S. officials said Monday, as President Donald Trump likened a caravan of Central American migrants to “an invasion.”
One Department of Homeland Security official with knowledge of the planning said 5,000 active-duty soldiers would be temporarily sent to the border, but two other U.S. officials cautioned that the final number had yet to be determined by the Pentagon. One of them said that the deployment will consist of “thousands” of U.S. troops.
It was not immediately clear why the scale of the mobilization increased fivefold from the 800 to 1,000 troops that defense officials were discussing last week. The additional personnel would join roughly 2,100 National Guard troops assigned to the border mission since April, and the combined force would be the largest deployment there in at least a decade.
Trump on Monday tweeted accusations about the caravan without citing any evidence.
“Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border,” Trump said. “Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!”
The White House has sought to make immigration the top issue of the Nov. 6 midterm elections, confident that Trump’s hard-line enforcement message will continue to drive his conservative base to the polls and even draw some crossover appeal among more-moderate voters. The president has latched on to the migrant caravan, helping draw attention to the group and labeling it a national security threat.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Monday that the administration is considering several administrative actions on the southern border, though she declined to describe the options publicly. Trump will do what “he deems necessary” on immigration, Sanders said.
Pentagon officials and Homeland Security officials are preparing a joint news conference Monday afternoon to describe the deployment in greater detail. A DHS official involved in the preparations said that plans have yet to be finalized but that the troop levels that were in consideration last week were not realistic.