Pentagon prepares to deploy 1,000 more troops to bolster immigration crackdown

The Pentagon is readying orders for the deployment of at least 1000 additional active duty troops to bolster President Donald Trumps expanding crackdown on immigration US officials said FridayThey said roughly 500 more soldiers largely a headquarters unit from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in New York will be sent to the southwest border And about 500 Marines will go to Guantanamo Bay Cuba where some of the detained migrants will be heldThe officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because announcements have not been made said there have been ongoing discussions about the deployments and the numbers could increase if additional details are worked outThe Pentagon has been scrambling to put in motion Trumps executive orders signed shortly after he took office on January 20 The first group of 1600 active duty troops deployed to the border last weekThe deployments reflect Trumps determination to expand the militarys role in his campaign to shut down the border and send detained migrants back to their home countriesTroops going to the border are expected to help put in place concertina wire barriers and provide needed transportation intelligence and other support to the Border Patrol Troops going to Guantanamo could help prepare the facility for an influx of migrants and do other support dutiesSpeaking on Fox and Friends on Friday morning Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he believes the US can get thousands of individuals in tents secured in places at Guantanamo BayBut he also said theres the possibility that hardened criminals or violent gang members could also be housed there As a result he said the Defense Department is preparing detention facilities at Guantanamo that are basically supermax prisons to be used to hold them temporarilyOfficials have been saying all week that there are likely to be additional troop deployments to help secure the southern border potentially rolling out rapidly in the coming days The eventual total deployed could beas many as 10000Before Trump returned to the White House there were already about 2500 Guard and Reserve forces consistently deployed to the border Officials noted that given the length of the nearly 2000mile border withMexico it will take additional forces to help put large rolls of concertina wire barriers in place and provide support to the Border PatrolThe roughly 1100 Army soldiers and 500 Marines ordered to deploy to the border last week have all arrived in El Paso Texas and San Diego and many have already begun workSeparately the US military is providing military aircraft for Department of Homeland Security deportation flights for more than 5000 detained migrants At least some of those are expected to go to the detention center at the US military base at Guantanamo BayTrump on Wednesday said his administration planned to send the worst criminal aliens to Guantanamo He ordered the Pentagon to prepare to hold up to 30000 migrants He said some of the migrants cant be trusted to stay in their home countries once they are sent backSome of them are so bad that we dont even trust the countries to hold them because we dont want them coming back so were gonna send em out to Guantanamo Trump saidThis is not the first time migrants would be held at Guantanamo US authorities have detained migrants intercepted at sea at a facility known as the Migrant Operations Center including people from Haiti and CubaThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever