(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Defense plans to send 1,500 additional active-duty troops to support the security mission along the U.S.-Mexico border for a temporary three-month period, according to a U.S. official, ahead of an expected surge of migrants with the end of Title 42 restrictions on May 11.
They will join 2,500 National Guard members already there on an active-duty status.
Their mission will be to help with ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support.
The move comes after an executive order from President Joe Biden last week that authorized the secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security and DOD “to order to active duty such units and individual members of the Ready Reserve” to better respond to the “the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States posed by international drug trafficking.”
The 1,500 additional troops will be from the active-duty military, not from the National Guard or reserves, at least initially, according to the official.
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