More active-duty troops will head to U.S.-Mexico border

TOTAL OF 3,600

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Members of Mexico’s National Guard stand guard at an inspection checkpoint for cars in line to cross the border into the United States from Mexico at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Thursday in Tijuana, Mexico. GREGORY BULL — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Lolita C. Baldor

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON>> The Pentagon will deploy about 1,500 more active duty soldiers to the southern border to support President Donald Trump’s expanding crackdown on immigration, a U.S. official said Friday.

That eventually would bring the total to about 3,600 active-duty troops at the border.

The order has been approved, the official said, to send a logistics brigade from the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty in North Carolina. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the deployment has not been announced.

The Pentagon has been scrambling to put in motion Trump’s executive orders signed shortly after he took office Jan. 20.

The first group of 1,600 active-duty troops has deployed to the border, and approximately 500 more soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division are expected to begin moving in the coming days.

About 500 Marines also have been told to go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some of the detained migrants will be held. Several hundred of them have arrived there.

Troops going to the border are expected to help put in place concertina wire barriers and provide needed transportation, intelligence and other support to the Border Patrol. The logistics brigade will help support and sustain the troops.

Troops going to Guantanamo are helping to prepare the facility for an influx of migrants and do other support duties.