Pentagon to deploy 1,500 additional troops to Mexico border
The Pentagon will additionally deploy 1.5 thousand servicemen, helicopters and military intelligence units to the western part of the border with Mexico to combat illegal migration. This was announced in a statement by Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Saleses on January 22.
"The Department of Defense will begin reinforcing its forces on the southwest border with an additional 1,500 ground personnel as well as helicopters with appropriate crews and intelligence analysts to support detection and monitoring efforts. Which represents a 60 percent increase in active ground forces," he stated.
Saleses also informed that the department will provide military airlift to support flights to deport more than 5,000 illegal immigrants from the sectors of San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas, detained by Customs and Border Protection.
In addition, the defense secretary said the department will begin assisting in the construction of temporary and permanent physical barriers to increase security.
Earlier in the day, Trump restricted the right of illegal migrants who entered the US through the southern border. It is specified that Trump authorized and instructed the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the State Department to take all necessary measures to immediately repel the invasion, repatriation and removal of illegal immigrants through the southern border of the United States.
That's when the media learned of U.S. plans to send thousands of military personnel to protect the border with Mexico. To date, about 2.2 thousand military personnel are already on the border as part of Task Force North in El Paso, Texas.
Before that, on January 21, the curator of border security in the Trump administration Thomas Homan said that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began to detain illegal migrants for their further deportation. He noted, however, that ICE's actions cannot be called "raids" as they are part of targeted law enforcement operations.
On the same day, a coalition of at least 18 US states filed a lawsuit against the president's decision to limit the granting of US citizenship by birthright. Another group of states, which included Arizona and Washington, filed another separate lawsuit against Trump's signature decision.
