US President Donald Trump has said he was ready to send any number of troops to the border with Mexico to stop thousands of migrants from crossing. Asked by USA Today how many troops he was willing to deploy, Trump replied, “as many as necessary.”
Earlier in the day, he also accused Mexico of failing to stop the caravan of asylum seekers marching to the southern US border. In particular, Trump claimed in a tweet there were criminals and “unknown Middle Easterners” mixed into their ranks, adding military and border patrol had been alerted to this “National Emergy.”
According to US media reports, the caravan made up of thousands of Hondurans has crossed into Mexico en route toward the US border, where the migrants hope to gain asylum.
During a visit to Mexico City on Friday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Mexican counterpart Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray agreed to cooperate on the caravan migrant issue.
However, Pentagon spokesperson Col. Rob Manning told reporters on Monday that the US has not sent additional forces to its border with Mexico. Manning confirmed that 2,100 National Guard troops are already stationed along the southern US border.