WASHINGTON – The US military is preparing to send about 1 000 additional active-duty troops to the border with Mexico, a US official said, just two days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on immigration.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, did not say when the troops would be deployed.
They would be joining the roughly 2 200 active-duty and thousands of National Guard troops already on the border.
During his first term, Trump ordered 5 200 troops to help secure the border with Mexico. Former President Joe Biden deployed active-duty troops to the border as well.
Trump’s January 20 executive order instructed the Pentagon to send as many troops as necessary to obtain “complete operational control of the southern border of the United States.”
“Within 90 days, the heads of the Defense Department and Department of Homeland Security will need to recommend whether additional actions, including invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, might be necessary,” it said.
The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the US president to deploy the military to suppress domestic insurrection.
As an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits military forces being used for domestic law enforcement, the 1807 act has been used in the past to quell civil unrest. The last time was in 1992, when the acquittal of four Los Angeles police officers in the beating of Black motorist Rodney King led to deadly riots. (Reuters)
