India News | Pentagon to Send 1,500 Active Duty Troops to Help Secure US-Mexico Border: Officials

Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Pentagon will begin deploying as many as 1,500 active duty troops to help secure the southern border in the coming days, US officials said Wednesday, putting in motion plans President Donald Trump laid out in executive orders shortly after he took office to crack down on immigration.

Agency News PTI|
India News | Pentagon to Send 1,500 Active Duty Troops to Help Secure US-Mexico Border: Officials

Washington, Jan 23 (AP) The Pentagon will begin deploying as many as 1,500 active duty troops to help secure the southern border in the coming days, US officials said Wednesday, putting in motion plans President Donald Trump laid out in executive orders shortly after he took office to crack down on immigration.

Acting Defence Secretary Robert Salesses was expected to sign the deployment orders on Wednesday, but it wasn't yet clear which troops or units will go, and the total could fluctuate.

Also Read | Earthquake in Manipur: 2 Quakes of Magnitude 4.3 and 3.3 on Richter Scale Hit Churachandpur and Pherzawl Districts; No Casualties Reported.

It remains to be seen if they will end up doing law enforcement, which would put American troops in a dramatically different role for the first time in decades.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not yet been made.

Also Read | Jalgaon Train Tragedy: Death Toll Rises to 12 As Karnataka Express Hits Passengers of Pushpak Express in Maharashtra’s Pachora; Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Leaders Express Condolence.

The active duty forces would join the roughly 2,500 US National Guard and Reserve forces already there. There are currently no active duty troops working along the border.

The troops are expected to be used to support border patrol agents with logistics, transportation and construction of barriers. They have done similar duties in the past, when both Trump and former president Joe Biden sent active duty troops to the border.

Troops are prohibited by law from doing law enforcement duties under the Posse Comitatus Act, but that may change.

Trump has directed through executive order that the incoming secretary of defence and incoming homeland security chief report back within 90 days if they think an 1807 law called the Insurrection Act should be invoked. That would allow those troops to be used in civilian law enforcement on US soil.

The last time the act was invoked was in 1992 during rioting in Los Angeles in protest against the acquittal of four police officers charged with beating Rodney King.

The widely expected deployment, coming in Trump's first week in office, was an early step in his long-touted plan to expand the use of the military along the border.

In one of his first orders on Monday, Trump directed the defence secretary to come up with a plan to "seal the borders" and repel "unlawful mass migration".

On Tuesday, just as Trump fired the Coast Guard commandant, Adm Linda Fagan, the service announced it was surging more cutter ships, aircraft and personnel to the "Gulf of America" -- a nod to the president's directive to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump said during his inaugural address on Monday that "I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places in which they came".

Military personnel have been sent to the border almost continuously since the 1990s to help address migration. drug trafficking and transnational crime.

In executive orders signed on Monday, Trump suggested the military would help the Department of Homeland Security with "detention space, transportation (including aircraft), and other logistics services".

In his first term, Trump ordered active duty troops to the border in response to a caravan of migrants slowly making its way through Mexico toward the United States in 2018.

More than 7,000 active duty troops were sent to Texas, Arizona and California, including military police, an assault helicopter battalion, various communications, medical and headquarters units, combat engineers, planners and public affairs units.

At the time, the Pentagon was adamant that active duty troops would not do law enforcement. So they spent much of their time transporting border patrol agents to and along the border, helping them erect additional vehicle barriers and fencing along the border, assisting them with communications and providing some security for border agent camps.

The military also provided border patrol agents with medical care, pre-packaged meals and temporary housing.

It's also not yet clear if the Trump administration will order the military to use bases to house detained migrants.

Bases previously have been used for that purpose, and after the 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban, they were used to host thousands of Afghan evacuees. The facilities struggled to support the influx. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

India News | Pentagon to Send 1,500 Active Duty Troops to Help Secure US-Mexico Border: Officials

Washington, Jan 23 (AP) The Pentagon will begin deploying as many as 1,500 active duty troops to help secure the southern border in the coming days, US officials said Wednesday, putting in motion plans President Donald Trump laid out in executive orders shortly after he took office to crack down on immigration.

Acting Defence Secretary Robert Salesses was expected to sign the deployment orders on Wednesday, but it wasn't yet clear which troops or units will go, and the total could fluctuate.

Also Read | Earthquake in Manipur: 2 Quakes of Magnitude 4.3 and 3.3 on Richter Scale Hit Churachandpur and Pherzawl Districts; No Casualties Reported.

It remains to be seen if they will end up doing law enforcement, which would put American troops in a dramatically different role for the first time in decades.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement has not yet been made.

Also Read | Jalgaon Train Tragedy: Death Toll Rises to 12 As Karnataka Express Hits Passengers of Pushpak Express in Maharashtra’s Pachora; Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Leaders Express Condolence.

The active duty forces would join the roughly 2,500 US National Guard and Reserve forces already there. There are currently no active duty troops working along the border.

The troops are expected to be used to support border patrol agents with logistics, transportation and construction of barriers. They have done similar duties in the past, when both Trump and former president Joe Biden sent active duty troops to the border.

Troops are prohibited by law from doing law enforcement duties under the Posse Comitatus Act, but that may change.

Trump has directed through executive order that the incoming secretary of defence and incoming homeland security chief report back within 90 days if they think an 1807 law called the Insurrection Act should be invoked. That would allow those troops to be used in civilian law enforcement on US soil.

The last time the act was invoked was in 1992 during rioting in Los Angeles in protest against the acquittal of four police officers charged with beating Rodney King.

The widely expected deployment, coming in Trump's first week in office, was an early step in his long-touted plan to expand the use of the military along the border.

In one of his first orders on Monday, Trump directed the defence secretary to come up with a plan to "seal the borders" and repel "unlawful mass migration".

On Tuesday, just as Trump fired the Coast Guard commandant, Adm Linda Fagan, the service announced it was surging more cutter ships, aircraft and personnel to the "Gulf of America" -- a nod to the president's directive to rename the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump said during his inaugural address on Monday that "I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places in which they came".

Military personnel have been sent to the border almost continuously since the 1990s to help address migration. drug trafficking and transnational crime.

In executive orders signed on Monday, Trump suggested the military would help the Department of Homeland Security with "detention space, transportation (including aircraft), and other logistics services".

In his first term, Trump ordered active duty troops to the border in response to a caravan of migrants slowly making its way through Mexico toward the United States in 2018.

More than 7,000 active duty troops were sent to Texas, Arizona and California, including military police, an assault helicopter battalion, various communications, medical and headquarters units, combat engineers, planners and public affairs units.

At the time, the Pentagon was adamant that active duty troops would not do law enforcement. So they spent much of their time transporting border patrol agents to and along the border, helping them erect additional vehicle barriers and fencing along the border, assisting them with communications and providing some security for border agent camps.

The military also provided border patrol agents with medical care, pre-packaged meals and temporary housing.

It's also not yet clear if the Trump administration will order the military to use bases to house detained migrants.

Bases previously have been used for that purpose, and after the 2021 fall of Kabul to the Taliban, they were used to host thousands of Afghan evacuees. The facilities struggled to support the influx. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

  • INR
  • USD
  • EUR
  • INR
  • USD
  • EUR
View all
City Petrol Diesel
New Delhi 96.72 89.62
Kolkata 106.03 92.76
Mumbai 106.31 94.27
Chennai 102.74 94.33
View all
Currency Price Change
Google News Telegram Bot
Close
Latestly whatsapp channel
Close
Latestly whatsapp channel