The Pentagon will send additional troops, apart from the 5,239 soldiers it has announced it will send to the southern border, reported today the commander of the Northern Command of the Armed Forces, General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy.
“5,239 military is the minimum, more troops will be sent,” O’Shaughnessy said at a press conference held at the headquarters of the Department of Defense.
On Monday, the Administration reported the deployment of 5239 soldiers on the border with Mexico during this week to respond to the arrival of two caravans of Central American immigrants, who are moving north from Mexico.
The general did not want to enter into specific figures and simply rejected that, as some media have advanced, the Pentagon is weighing the shipment of 14,000 soldiers in total.
“Honestly, I do not even know where that came from, that’s not a parameter we’re working with,” said the commander.
O’Shaughnessy did not give details about the costs or duration of the presence of the troops, but assured that the Army has military personnel in the reserve prepared for deployment.
The military insisted that the objective of the mission is to help the Department of Justice (DHS) and the Office of Customs and Border Protection (CBP, in English) in monitoring the border, and revealed that part of the forces deployed will be part of the Army Corps of Engineers.
On the exact number of soldiers already deployed at the border, O’Shaughnessy said that there are now about a thousand soldiers in the state of Texas.
“That number literally changes at the time we talked because today more troops are going to Texas,” he explained.
Asked about the criticism that this measure has received, a decision that comes in full campaign for the legislative elections of November 6, O’Shaughnessy alleged that other presidents acted in the same way in the past, although he conceded that they did not do so during a campaign electoral.
