https://thehill.com/policy/defense/427519-pentagon-to-send-a-few-thousand-more-troops-to-southern-border

The Pentagon will send “a few thousand” more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced Tuesday.

Shanahan said the military is supporting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in its recent request for an extension of the Pentagon’s mission at the border. That request also called for more assistance in laying additional concertina wire and expanding surveillance.

“We’ve responded with ‘here’s how many people it would take, and this is the timing and mix of people,’” Shanahan said during his first press conference at the Pentagon since taking on the acting role on Jan. 1.

Asked how many people the Pentagon will send, he replied: “Several thousand. I’ll kind of leave it at that.”

Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col Jamie Davis said later in a statement that the department is “currently sourcing the units involved and there will be an increase of a few thousand troops. We will provide more clarity on the numbers when we have it."

There are about 2,350 active-duty troops currently at the southern border after they were first deployed shortly before the midterm elections last year.

President Trump ordered the deployment in October 2018, claiming that a caravan of asylum seekers traveling north from Central America was a risk to national security.

Troop numbers peaked at 5,900 during the mission, which was originally supposed to end Dec. 15, but has since been extended twice, first to Jan. 31 and now to Sept. 30. The mission will cost $132 million by the end of the month, according to director of operations for the Joint Staff Vice Adm. Michael Gilday.

The troops have been supporting DHS by installing concertina wire and providing logistics, medical assistance and surveillance. Shanahan emphasized that the troops’ role was “not about undertaking a law enforcement position.”