With the United States, the Pentagon is preparing to deploy at least 800 troops to the US-Mexico border to confront a migrant caravan that President Donald Trump has described as a "national emergency," said administration officials.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis can sign an order mobilizing those troops as early as Thursday. They said the number of troops will range from 800 to 1,000.

The news of Mattis' decision follows a Thursday morning tweet from Trump who came to halt the Central American caravan by "bringing out the military."

The troops would add to the roughly 2,100 National Guard Trump Soldiers already spread out across the border under an order from Trump earlier this year. The troops are not engaging with migrants directly or performing law enforcement duties. Instead, they're backing up Border Patrol agents to do their jobs in securing the border.

It remains unclear whether or not the National Guardsmen, or whether the Pentagon is considering sending an active-duty troops to the border, an idea floated by Trump that would be facing the legal hurdles and congressional scrutiny.

Even if Trump avoids that controversy by mobilizing more National Guard troops, critics say the move is a "desperate political stunt" designed to stoke anti-immigrant fears in the leadup to the Nov. 6 elections.

"The caravan is in no way a threat and sec. Mattis should be refused to use US military personnel as political props in Trump's war on immigrants," said Heidi Hess, co-director of CREDO Action, a liberal network that advocates for social change .

Members of Congress have also been skeptical of Trump's reaction to the migrant caravan, which is slowly making its way through southern Mexico more than 1,000 miles away from the U.S. border.

Asked about deploying troops to the border, Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., Told CNN this week that the president "should be looking for ways of providing the needs for these individuals before they hit our borders."

"There should be a way they can present (asylum) claims and know that they'll be presented fairly when they reach the border," he said.

Meanwhile, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grbadley, RIowa, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wants the Trump Administration to seek a "safe third country" asylum agreement with Mexico to deal with migrant caravans. Such an agreement would require asylum-seeking migrants to make their claim in the first country rather than pbading through another country, according to Grbadley and Lee.

"Entering into a safe third country agreement with Mexico," said the senators in a joint statement.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has already asked the United Nations to help his government.

While Trump has been in the process of becoming a member of the migrant caravan.

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