The Pentagon has ordered the deployment of more active military forces to the United States border along with Mexico in order to install surveillance cameras and to reinforce existing border barriers with concertina wires, the undersecretary of defence for policy John Rood has disclosed on January 29 in Congressional testimony.
US secretary of defence Patrick M. Shanahan noted that the Pentagon was already preparing to deploy “several thousand” American troops to the US-Mexico border while responding to a US department of homeland security call for providing more assistance on monitoring and “laying down more concertina wire”, the Daily Beast reported.
It quoted Shanahan as stating: “The president would declare a national emergency and then we would do the planning and do the recommendation on how the military could support the request.”
According to Sputnik news reports, the Pentagon would likely involve more American forces and possible extra aviation to support stop illegal movement.
Shanahan said, “It’s really around this mission of monitoring, surveilling and detection. If we detect activity, that’s when we notify Customs and Border Protection, and they do their apprehension.”
The Pentagon’s orders come after the undersecretary of defence for policy John Rood told the US Congress on January 29 that the US officials were handling three new migrants caravans from the central America that are moving towards the US-Mexican border.
Rood said about 2,300 active duty American troops were presently deployed at the border. However, he did not disclose the number of troops of the latest deployment, which has triggered by a CPB request, in a part, for an additional 150 miles of concertina wiring around border latest by March 31. National Guard troops also have been deployed at the border.
Rood told the US lawmakers to expect some additional deployment of troops this year in a response to the developments such as the additional migrant caravans from central America.