National Guard troops in San Luis, Arizona, march near the US-Mexico border on April 18, 2018.(Photo: Nick Oza, Republic of Arizona)

The Pentagon will deploy up to 5,000 troops on active duty at the US-Mexico border to prevent members of a caravan of migrants from illegally entering the country, a Monday announced. American manager.

About 2,100 National Guard soldiers are already deployed across the border, on the orders of President Donald Trump earlier this year. In recent weeks, the president has warned repeatedly against the dangers of a caravan made up mostly of Central American migrants, which has grown to 7,000 people and continues its slow progress north, across Mexico.

Officials said last week that they planned to send up to 1,000 active soldiers to the border, but this deployment rose to 5,000, according to a Homeland Security Department official who requested anonymity because he was not allowed to publicly discuss these projects until an official announcement on Monday afternoon.

Troops are not supposed to carry out law enforcement activities, but rather provide relief support to Border Patrol officers at the border and be prepared to react if groups of migrants attempt to take action to assault the border.

The Homeland Security official also said the president is expected to make a speech on Tuesday to present other actions to end the caravan of migrants, including limiting or preventing migrants from seeking asylum. . This approach would be based on national security arguments similar to those used to ban Trump's travel ban last year and would certainly meet the same legal challenges posed by immigration and civil rights organizations.

Trump Monday again criticized the

Many gang members and very bad people are part of the Caravan heading to our southern border. Please go back, you will not be admitted to the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our country and our soldiers are waiting for you!

These measures are the latest in a series of efforts by the administration, which is trying to respond firmly to the caravan of migrants in the run-up to the mid-term elections. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen presented Friday in Calexico, California, a newly fenced section of the security fence, including a plaque proclaiming "the completion of the first section of the wall of the border of President Trump ". This section was considered a priority and funded under the Obama administration.

On the same day, Customs and Border Commissioner Kevin McAleenan visited the ports of entry south of San Diego and explained how additional troops would help protect the border from any attempts by migrants to rush at the border. McAleenan, who described the caravan that advertises as a "law enforcement situation", acknowledged that, despite the additional labor, his agency had no to speed up the process by which migrants can legally apply for asylum.

That's what the majority of people did when the last caravan of migrants reached the US border in April: 122 people were arrested while they were trying to illegally enter the country. country, but 401 have come to the points of entry to apply for asylum, according to data from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. .

Read or share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/10/29/migrant-caravan-troops-border/1805864002/