The Pentagon has said on Monday, it will deploy its active military soldiers and coast guards members at the United States border along with the Mexican border until September 30, while expanding the mission including detection and surveillance.
According to The Asian Tribune news reports, while lengthening the American troops’ mission past a January 31 deadline, the Pentagon has said it was “transitioning its support at the southwestern border from hardening ports of entry to mobile surveillance and detection, as well as concertina wire emplacement between ports of entry”.
The Pentagon statement added, “DoD will continue to provide aviation support,” referring to the US department of defence.
The Pentagon has already deployed around 2,350 soldiers at the US-Mexico border under the controversial orders of the US President Donald Trump last year before the mid-term elections in November as many central American migrants have made their way to US-Mexico border seeking asylum from poverty and violence in their homeland country.
Trump’s this recent announcement has drawn criticism from Democrats, where he was alleged that he ordered such thing to galvanize supporters ahead of 2020 presidential election.
About 2,200 National Guardsmen were supporting border operations even before Trump sent the active-duty troops.
The deployment was supposed to be done in mid-December, but however, the department of homeland security has asked to postpone and extend dates until January, which might now further prolonged.