A soldier installs concertina wire along the border wall near the Dennis DeConcini Port of Entry in Nogales on Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018. A new deployment is expected to stretch an additional 150 miles of razor wire along the border.
The United States is sending 1,500 soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border, federal officials announced Wednesday afternoon.
In a statement from the Department of Defense, the Acting Secretary of Defense announced the Pentagon is sending 15 hundred troops to the U-S Mexico border. The acting secretary said in addition to the more than 1 thousand ground troops he is also sending helicopters plus support crews and intelligence analysts.
The military is also supplying planes to deport 5 thousand people who are in the custody of Customs and Border Protection in the San Diego and El Paso sectors.
The acting Secretary also said the Department of Defense will also help with the construction of permanent and temporary border barriers.
The release did not specifically mention where the troops are going or how long they will be on the border.
Previously when active troops were sent to the border they supported Customs and Border Patrol agents along the border. During the first Trump administration, the troops also erected dozens of miles of razor wire along the border wall in urban areas like Nogales.
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