The general in charge of the border mission wants to begin the redeployment of the troops

The army general in charge of the controversial border mission of the Trump administration wants to start redeploying some of the American troops that were sent several weeks ago to help customs and border protection, announced Monday US military officials.

The change would occur as the army seeks to adapt to the reality on the ground. Soldiers spent days tying up miles of barbed wire and some said they waited days for missions. They were sent to the border in the days leading up to the mid-term elections of November 6, when President Trump said he wanted to prevent an "invasion" of migrants traveling north in a caravan coming from 39, Central America.

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan said in an interview with Politico on Monday that he would probably focus first on the redeployment of logistics-oriented soldiers. They constitute the majority of the border force and have focused both on the installation of concertina yarns and other obstacles to slow the influx of migrants and on the construction of temporary camps in which US soldiers can live. proximity. Representatives of the US military, expressing anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, confirmed the accuracy of the commentary.

"Now that things are settled here, we do not need so many more soldiers to build base camps because the base camps are built," said Buchanan, who has his headquarters in San Antonio.

Critics of the operation, including some retired generals, described the effort as a cynical attempt by the president to rally his conservative base to the vote. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other defense officials have defended this view as legal, Mattis claiming that in the military, "we do not do stunts."

It is unclear how quickly the troops will start returning home and whether any of them could be reassigned from Texas or Arizona to California, following a recent decision made by members of the caravan to turn to the west and head for Tijuana, south of San Diego. The migrants started arriving in Tijuana last week.

Currently, approximately 5,800 service members are deployed at the border for the mission, including approximately 2,800 in Texas, 1,500 in California and 1,500 in Arizona. Buchanan said the number of members of the services involved in the mission should quickly decrease as the soldiers finish their work, Politico reported.

US military officials have repeatedly said that they expect the entire mission to end by Dec. 15, with the warning that circumstances may change. Before the election, Trump had said he could send 15,000 troops, but military officials later said it was unlikely.

In the south of Texas, about 1,000 soldiers were sent to the border, about 1,500 km from where the migrants are currently heading. When the Washington Post visited a base camp near the border in Donna City on November 10, more than 100 soldiers could be seen relaxing under a large tent the size of a hockey rink, some playing to video games, others swinging a football, and others reading.

Among the questions asked by the soldiers during the deployment, it is worth wondering if they will themselves be invited to possibly destroy the kilometers of concertina wires that they have installed. On Wednesday, Mattis told a soldier who asked the question that the mission so far was to install the barriers and that "we will let you know" what is the ultimate plan.

Mattis sought to qualify the mission as legal and routine.

"We determined that the mission was completely legal and this was also reviewed by Justice Department lawyers," said Mattis. "It's obviously a moral and ethical mission to support our border patrol boats. There's nothing new under the sun. "