The Pentagon will begin deploying as many as 1,500 active duty troops to help secure the southern border in the coming days, U.S. officials said Wednesday, putting in motion plans President Donald Trump laid out in executive orders shortly after he took office to crack down on immigration.
After the Department of Defense announced Wednesday that 1,500 troops would be initially assigned to the border mission, what bases and units they were coming from and what other forces could be included remained questions.
This is just the beginning,” one Defense official said about the deployment of active-duty troops to the border with Mexico.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that he and President Donald Trump want to “bring the warrior culture back to the Department of Defense.”
The move enacts President Trump's executive orders issued shortly after he took office to intensify immigration enforcement.
Whatever is needed at the border will be provided,” Pete Hegseth, the new defense secretary, told reporters on Monday.
The Pentagon is expected on Wednesday to begin the process of sending about 1,500 active military troops to the southern U.S. border to help help secure the U.S.-Mexico border. The process will start with acting Defense Secretary Robert Salesses signing the orders, according to The Associated Press.
The Pentagon has said that the US military would provide flights to deport more than 5,000 immigrants held by US authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California
There are already about 2,500 U.S. National Guard and Reserve forces there. Zoom in: The Pentagon will also provide military aircraft to support the Department of Homeland Security's deportation flights of more than 5,000 undocumented immigrants from the areas of San Diego, California; and El Paso, Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the additional troops will work alongside federal border agents amid the Trump administration's crackdown on immigrants.
U.S. military C-17 aircraft began flying detained migrants out of the country on Friday, following orders from President Donald Trump, as the Pentagon prepared to send more troops to the southern border,
The Trump administration didn’t waste any time in enacting their immigration agenda as ICE raids were performed in cities across the country and more troops were deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border. Former Deputy Press Secretary of the Department of Defense Sabrina Singh shares her thoughts on these developments and more.