The Pentagon said Wednesday that 1,500 active-duty troops are being sent to the border with Mexico—and it is "just the beginning." According to a US Customs and Border Protection briefing document seen by the Washington Post, President Trump is planning to send around 10,000 troops to the border. Around 2,500 US National Guard and Reserve forces are already at the border but no active-duty troops, the AP reports. According to the document seen by the Post, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is planning to more than double its detention capacity with facilities including four new 10,000-bed holding centers and 14 smaller centers.
Acting Defense Secretary Robert Salesses said the troops' duties will including flying helicopters to assist Border Patrol agents and providing deportation flights, but their mission could soon expand, the AP reports. "This is just the beginning," he said. Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border on Monday, his first day back in office.
CBS News reports that Border Patrol agents have been ordered to quickly expel people crossing the border illegally without giving them a chance to seek legal protection. The order is based on a provision in an immigration law that applies to "aliens that traveled through a country with a communicable disease." The Post reports that the order doesn't list any specific diseases, "essentially closing the border to anyone attempting to exercise the right to seek humanitarian refuge under US law." (More US-Mexico border stories.)
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