There are now 5,800 troops deployed to the southern border, spread across California, Arizona, and Texas.
That total includes 1,500 troops in Southern California, as members of a caravan traveling from Central America to the U.S. have begun arriving in the Mexican city of Tijuana with the hope of gaining entry into the country, three Defense officials told the Washington Examiner.
The group was initially expected to travel the shortest route from southern Mexico to the U.S., which is an 1,100-mile trek to South Texas, near McAllen and Brownsville. The trip from the Mexico-Guatemala border to Tijuana is 2,500 miles longer, more than double that of the route to South Texas. It’s not clear why the group traveled the longer distance.
Media reports from this week have showcased troops in Texas waiting for the migrants to begin arriving south of the Texas border.
Col. Cathy Wilkinson, a spokesperson for U.S. Army North’s Joint Forces Land Component Command, said there are more troops based in Texas because that figure includes the headquarters for the Army North, which is overseeing day-to-day operations for the mission. None of the troops are in New Mexico.
The total number of people migrating as part of multiple caravans from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras has fluctuated in recent weeks as more than 3,000 have dropped off to apply for asylum in Mexico instead of going onto the U.S.
Following President Trump’s order to bar the group from illegally entering the country, the Pentagon approved a Homeland Security Department request to deploy additional troops to the southern border.
The troops would take over nonenforcement jobs, which will allow U.S. Border Patrol and other CBP officers to focus on apprehensions and processing asylum requests at ports of entry. The troops are not expected to make arrests of illegal entrants or handle asylum requests.
DHS, in its request, asked troops remain available through Dec. 15.
DHS press secretary Tyler Houlton said Friday they are meant as supportive for CBP in order to free up law enforcement to respond to a surge of people at the border.
Illegal entry will no longer be tolerated. Yesterday @DHSgov and @CBP installed new wire on the wall on Imperial Beach. pic.twitter.com/X2Gp78x5Bc
— Tyler Q. Houlton (@SpoxDHS) November 16, 2018
On Thursday, military personnel installed barbed wire fencing atop a portion of the border wall in Imperial Beach, San Diego, to prevent people from sitting on or climbing over it after those types of incidents a day earlier.
