-The Washington Times-
The Pentagon announced a massive deployment Monday of military muscle to the U.S.-Mexico border, saying at least 5,200 troops will soon be on the lines helping build fencing, ferry Border Patrol agents to hotspots and provide support as the government braces for the migrant caravan.
The new troops — some of them carrying their weapons — join more than 2,000 National Guard soldiers already sent to the border in the spring, after an earlier caravan exposed holes in American border security and left the Trump administration confounded.
None of the troops will be engaged in actual policing, but they will help the Border Patrol agents and port-of-entry officers stiffen the lines of defense at a time when the government says it’s encountering 1,900 illegal immigrants a day, and is bracing for even more in the form of the caravans.
“The president has made it clear that border security is national security,” said Air Force Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, head of U.S. Northern Command. “That is the direction we’re given, that’s the direction that we’re marching to.”
Homeland Security is calling the new military mission Operation Secure Line. The Pentagon is calling it Operation Faithful Patriot.
It fulfills President Trump’s demand, expressed repeatedly this month, that the military take a bigger role in trying to seal off the border to illegal crossings. Read more