President Trump said Wednesday he will need to send more troops to the southern border after an increase in illegal crossings into the U.S.
“I’m going to have to call up more military,” Trump said at a Texas political fundraiser, referring to adding more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I think the border is going to be an incredible issue,” Trump added.
Trump lamented what he said was a border crisis, claiming there were “many, many dead people” as a result of the migrants’ attempts to come into the United States.
Trump accused illegal immigrants of raiding houses near the border and creating a “very dangerous” environment.
Rodolfo Karisch, the U.S. Border Patrol chief of the Rio Grande Valley Sector, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday the conditions on the southwest border were the worst he has ever seen and there were “caravan-equivalent numbers of migrants” coming into the country every week.
Trump declared a border emergency in February which would allow him to move government funds to build a wall along the southern border. The order prompted a swift legal challenge from 16 states.
Trump dispatched 3,750 U.S. troops to the border in February, bringing the number of troops on the border to 6,000 in addition to Customs and Border Protection agents.
