Troops Trump deployed to border should be home by Christmas, military announces
All of the 5,800 active duty military troops President Trump ordered deployed to the border with Mexico to confront the migrants attempting to enter the U.S. from Central America will be home by Christmas, a top Army commander confirmed Monday.
The Pentagon could begin drawing down its troop levels at the border as early as next week, Army Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, who oversees the mission on the southern border, told Politico. His comments came just hours after the U.S. was forced to partially close its busiest Mexican border crossing at Tijuana, Mexico to install additional security measures.
"Our end date right now is 15 December, and I've got no indications from anybody that we'll go beyond that," Buchanan said.
He also confirmed that the Pentagon had rejected a Department of Homeland Security request for armed troops to back up Border Patrol authorities, saying that was a law enforcement function that the military cannot legally provide.
“Once we get the rest of the obstacles built, we don’t need to keep all those engineers here. As soon as I’m done with a capability, what I intend to do is redeploy it,” Buchanan said in the interview. “I don’t want to keep these guys on just to keep them on. … Now that things are set down here, we don’t need as many troops to actually build base camps and things like that, because the base camps are built."
However, on Thursday, Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters at the Pentagon that date "could always be amended." Some quick-response troops will remain longer as engineers begin to head back home, Buchanan said.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/troops-trump-deployed-to-border-should-be-home-by-christmas-military-announces