United States Sends 1,500 Additional Troops To Mexico Border

JAKARTA - The White House on Wednesday announced the United States would send 1.500 additional active troops to the border with Mexico, two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on immigration.

The additional troops include 500 Marines, as well as Army helicopter crews and intelligence analysts. They will join the 2,200 active troops and thousands of National Guard on the border before President Trump's inauguration this week.

"This is the first day (Trump) action to direct the Department of Defense to make domestic security the core mission of the institution," White House spokesman Krypt Leavitt told reporters.

Earlier, during his first term of office, the Republican politician ordered 5,200 troops to help secure the border with Mexico.

After that, Democratic President Joe Biden, who ruled, also deployed active troops to the border.

A US official, who briefed Pentagon journalists on condition of anonymity, said an additional 1,500 troops heading towards the border did not appear to have law enforcement responsibilities.

Another official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there had been informal discussions about sending 10,000 soldiers over time.

However, officials warn that the final figure has not been determined and the number of troops will depend on several factors, including the impact on military readiness and what the Department of Homeland Security has requested.

Meanwhile, Acting Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses said the US military would help provide flights for deportations led by the Department of Homeland Security against more than 5,000 immigrants detained by US authorities in El Paso, Texas, and San Diego, California.

"DHS will provide law enforcement on flights and the State Department will obtain the necessary diplomatic permits," Salesses said.

President Trump on his first day in office declared illegal immigration a national state of emergency, assigning the US military to assist border security, issuing a broad ban on asylum, taking steps to limit citizenship for children born on American soil.

His executive order on January 20 instructed the Pentagon to send as many troops as necessary to obtain "full operational control over the southern United States border."

"Within 90 days, the head of the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security will need to recommend whether additional measures, including implementing the 1807 Insurgency Act, may be needed," President Biden said.

The Law on Insurgency in 1807 allowed the US president to deploy the military to suppress domestic insurgency and has been used in the past to defuse civil unrest.

President Trump is known to have pledged to intensify border security and deport large numbers of migrants.

He criticized Biden for the high level of illegal immigration, although the number of migrants caught crossing illegally had begun to decline dramatically after Biden tightened his policy last year and Mexico stepped up law enforcement.

Separately, the Coast Guard, who served in maritime security and law enforcement, on Tuesday said it would "immediately deploy troops and ships to a number of areas, including the southeast border near Florida, to "prevent and ward off mass migration by sea from Haiti and/or Cuba."

It said another important territory was the maritime border between Texas and Mexico in "American Bay."