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The U.S. military plans to deploy 5,000 troops to the southwest U.S. border in anticipation of a caravan of would-be asylum seekers and migrants currently moving northward in Mexico, U.S. officials said Monday.
The new figure is a major increase from initial estimates of 800 troops and would represent a military force equal to about one-third the number of customs officials currently working at the border. The military sent about 2,000 National Guard troops to the area earlier this year.
The U.S. and federal law-enforcement officials said troops are likely to be deployed to ports of entry, at least in initial phases of the U.S. military mission, which the Pentagon has named Operation Faithful Patriot.
U.S. troops later expect to support border officials by doing things like building tents, providing medical support and helping staff command and control centers.
Under the latest plans, about 1,800 troops will go to Texas, 1,700 to Arizona and 1,500 to California. The troops will be drawn from about 10 U.S. Army installations and consist largely of military police and engineers, one of the U.S. officials said. U.S. Marines also will be deployed, the U.S. official said.
A Honduran man was killed in clashes between a group of migrants and police at the border between Mexico and Guatemala. Photo: Esteban Biba/Zuma Press
Some already have begun to deploy to the area and most are expected to serve there until mid-December, a Pentagon official said.
The additional troops would mean that the number of U.S. forces deployed at the border would be greater than those currently in Syria and Iraq, and roughly half of those deployed in Afghanistan.
A Pentagon spokesman called any figures about troop deployments “premature.”
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Friday that the agency wasn’t considering plans to have troops enforce immigration law.
Mr. McAleenan said his agency is updating longstanding plans to deal with a mass migration situation, including possible temporary holding and processing facilities.
He said officials will devise plans to ensure “we can secure the ports (of entry) to prevent a large group from coming at one time,” Mr. McAleenan said.
Earlier this year, officials form the Department of Homeland Security, including Mr. McAleenan and Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, publicly encouraged would-be asylum seekers to ask for refuge at ports of entry, saying that was the only legal way to apply for asylum at the U.S. border. Crossing the border illegally is a federal misdemeanor.
Since the spring, foreigners have routinely had to wait days or weeks to cross the border and ask for asylum at border crossings from San Diego to Brownsville, Texas, forcing them to stay in shelters in Mexico.
Mr. McAleenan, who spoke to reporters Friday during a tour of the ports of entry near San Diego, said the agency was making contingency plans for an increase in asylum seekers at ports of entry, including the anticipated arrival of thousands of migrants in the caravan making their way from Central America through Mexico. Plans include an expansion of metering how many asylum seekers are allowed into each port daily.
The agency also is considering what to do about people who have been waiting in Mexico, as directed by U.S. border officials, should the president temporarily bar asylum seekers from the border.
Write to Nancy A. Youssef at [email protected] and Alicia A. Caldwell at [email protected]
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