Pentagon Sends More Troops to the Border

Roughly 3,750 service members will be heading south
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 3, 2019 4:04 PM CST
Pentagon: Here Come More Border Troops
In this Nov. 16, 2018, file photo, members of the US military install multiple tiers of concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande near the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas.   (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

The Pentagon says it's sending about 3,750 more US troops to the southwest border to help out Customs and Border Protection, CNN reports. The mission is slated to last 90 days and will include mobile surveillance as well as the placement of 150 miles of wire between ports of entry. The deployment will bring the full number of border forces (including CBP) in that area to 4,350, the Huffington Post notes. Critics assailed the last troop border deployment, calling it a political stunt designed to support President Trump's promise of securing the border, but former Secretary of Defense James Mattis dismissed that at the time, CNBC recalls: "We don't do stunts in this department," Mattis said. (One conservative critic is pressuring Trump to build a border wall, but he seemed to shrug it off.)

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