Trump: 15,000 troops at border?

WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would deploy as many as 15,000 military personnel to the border with Mexico in response to caravans of Central American migrants making their way northward, doubling the figure Pentagon officials have announced would be operating there.

“We’ll go up to anywhere between 10 and 15,000 military personnel on top of Border Control, ICE, and everybody else at the border,” Trump said in remarks to reporters before departing Washington for a campaign rally in Florida. “Nobody’s coming in. We’re not allowing people to come in.”

Trump’s comments came a day after the general in charge of the border deployment said 5,239 active-duty troops would be heading to the border with more potentially to follow, in addition to the 2,092 members of the National Guard already there.

It wasn’t clear if Trump’s 15,000 figure was inclusive of the National Guard deployment.

If the deployment reaches 15,000 troops, it would be roughly equivalent to the size of the U.S. military’s presence in Afghanistan and three times the size of the presence in Iraq. Already, the deployment is believed to be the largest of its kind in more than a century.

“The number of troops deployed will change each day as military forces flow into the operating area, but the initial estimate is that [the Defense Department] will have more than 7,000 troops supporting DHS across California, Arizona and Texas,” U.S. Northern Command said in a statement issued shortly after Trump spoke.

Critics say the president’s decision to announce the deployments just days before the election is a political stunt designed to fire up a base concerned about immigration.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, rejected the criticism on Tuesday, saying that the military was deploying to support the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection.

“The support that we provide to the Secretary for Homeland Security is practical support based on the request from the commissioner of customs and border police, so we don’t do stunts in this department,” Mattis said.

The defense secretary said the military had carried out similar missions within the United States following natural disasters. “We are there in support of the Secretary of Homeland Security, who needs additional military assistance,” he said.

A retired Marine Corps general, Mattis has long prioritized protecting the military from politicization, regularly emphasizing the apolitical traditions of the American armed forces.

Deploying forces domestically in relation to such a politically charged issues risks eroding the public support that the armed forces enjoy with the American public.

Officials in Washington say that if thousands of migrants make it to the border and attempt to force their way through a crossing, the military will be needed and should be in place well in advance. The officials also hope the deployment will help deter the caravans from proceeding.