Pentagon prepared to send 1,000 extra troops to reinforce Trump’s immigration crackdown

The Pentagon is readying orders for the deployment of at least 1,000 extra active-duty troops to boost President Donald Trump’s increasing crackdown on immigration, U.S. officials said Friday. About 500 more troops, mostly from the 10th Mountain Division's headquarters unit at Fort Drum in New York, would be deployed to the southwest border, they added. Additionally, around 500 Marines will travel to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some of the migrants who have been arrested will be housed. There have been continuous negotiations over the deployments, and the numbers may rise if more specifics are worked out, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcements have been made. The Pentagon has been rushing to implement the executive orders that Trump issued soon after he took office on January 20. Last Monday, the first 1,600 active duty soldiers arrived at the border. Trump's resolve to increase the military's involvement in his drive to close the border and repatriate detained migrants to their countries of origin is reflected in the deployments. It is anticipated that troops heading to the border would assist with erecting concertina wire barriers and give the Border Patrol the necessary transportation, intelligence, and other support. In addition to doing other support tasks, troops deployed to Guantanamo might assist in getting the prison ready for a flood of migrants. -Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated on Friday morning's "Fox and Friends" that he thinks the United States can get "thousands of individuals in tents, secured in places at Guantanamo Bay." However, he said that there's a chance violent gang members or hardened criminals would also be kept there. He said that to house them temporarily, the Defense Department is constructing new detention facilities at Guantanamo "that are supermax prisons." All week long, officials have stated that more troops will probably be deployed to help defend the southern border, maybe with a quick rollout in the days ahead. Up to 10,000 people may be deployed in the end. Approximately 2,500 Guard and Reserve personnel were regularly stationed at the border before Trump's return to the White House. Given the roughly 2,000-mile border with Mexico, officials said it will require more troops to assist in erecting big rolls of concertina wire barriers and to support the Border Patrol. All 500 Marines and around 1,100 Army personnel who were ordered to deploy to the border last week have arrived in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, and many have already started working. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security is using military planes to conduct deportation flights for over 5,000 migrants who have been arrested. Trump declared on Wednesday that the "worst criminal aliens" will be sent to Guantanamo under his government. He gave the Pentagon instructions to get ready to detain up to 30,000 migrants. According to him, after the migrants are returned home, some of them cannot be relied upon to remain there. Trump declared, "We're going to send 'em out to Guantanamo because some of them are so bad that we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back." The practice of detaining migrants in Guantanamo is not new. At a facility called the Migrant Operations Center, U.S. officials have held migrants, including those from Cuba and Haiti, who were apprehended at sea.

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