Currently 5,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Texas, Arizona and California, backing immigration enforcement operations led by the Department of Homeland Security. With Mr. Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, that number is expected to surge to 6,000 by March 1, a senior Defense Department official said Friday.
Those troops will provide air support to Customs and Border Patrol officers and Homeland Security agents carrying out border security operations. In addition, those forces have been tasked with securing the hundreds of miles of territory along the border, in between the major points of entry into the U.S.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly said those areas have become a highway for illegal immigrants and illicit narcotics coming into the U.S., despite reports from Homeland Security officials that most of the illegal smuggling comes through known entry points.
To secure those areas, U.S. troops are stringing an additional 140 miles of border area with concertina wire, along with other areas that have already been fortified during previous troop deployments to the border. That work, which the Pentagon official says is 30 percent complete, will be coupled with a new "ground-based detection and monitoring mission" to be conducted by U.S. military units.