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The first 100 active troops arrived at the US-Mexico border to provide support to border patrol agents as a migrant caravan slowly heads north from Central America , said Thursday a Fox News Defense Department official.
Troops conduct initial assessments at the Port of Entry in McAllen, Texas. The official said that about 2,600 soldiers were currently in rally bases, mainly in Texas, and that several thousand more would be expected over the weekend to travel to California and Canada. in Arizona.
US troops assigned to the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion and the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion are working together to drive a stake into the ground when tents are set up at Fort Huachuca, Arizona on Thursday.
(Photo of the US Army by Commander Brandon Best)
The Pentagon said more than 7,000 soldiers on active service would be sent to the southern border, with more opportunities.
President Trump said that number could reach 15,000.
Trump drew a hard line in immigration just before the midterm elections.
Last week, officials said 800 to 1,000 soldiers could be sent. On Monday, they announced that about 5,200 people were deployed. The next day, an air force general rejected a report reporting a figure of up to 14,000.
Troops traveling to the border regions of Texas, Arizona and California represent only a small fraction of the nation's approximately 1.3 million active-duty military personnel. The mission should only last 45 days.
General Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who heads the US Northern Command, leading the military operation Operation Faithful Patriot, said the caravan posed a potential threat, although he has not yet defined the nature of this threat.
Central American migrants, including many families and hundreds of children, are moving slowly north, even though they remain hundreds of miles from the border. One group had a violent confrontation with the Mexican police on the border with Guatemala, throwing stones.
US soldiers assigned to the 309th Military Intelligence Battalion and the 305th Military Intelligence Battalion set up a tent on Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
(Photo of the US Army by Commander Brandon Best)
"I think what we have seen is that we have clearly seen an organization at a higher level than we have experienced before," O'Shaughnessy said. "We saw violence coming out of the caravan and after crossing other international borders, we saw them behaving of a nature that was not the one we saw in the past. "
Trump said that he had told soldiers who were mobilizing at the border that if migrants tried to throw stones at soldiers, they should act as if these stones were "rifles".
Soldiers from the 591st Military Police Company board a Super Hercules C-130J from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas on Wednesday.
(Photo of the first class aviator Daniel A. Hernandez in the US Air Force)
Trump made these comments Thursday in a speech on immigration. He promised a decree next week prohibiting migrants from seeking asylum when they illegally cross the border and create large tents that may contain anyone from across the border. .
US immigration law states that asylum seekers may do so regardless of how they arrive in the United States.
Jennifer Griffin of Fox News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
