The Trump administration approved an additional 1,115 service members for deployment to the southern border Thursday as part of President Trump’s mission to seal off the US-Mexico boundary.
The latest round of deployments will bring the total number of US troops at the border close to 10,000 – far higher than the 2,500 National Guardsmen former President Joe Biden had stationed on the frontier at the end of his term.
Currently, there are more than 8,000 service members actively patrolling the US-Mexico border in aerial, maritime and land support roles, a US Northern Command spokesperson told The Post.
The incoming units will provide “enhanced sustainment, engineering, medical, and operational capabilities as part of the Department of Defense’s continued whole-of-government approach to gain full operational control of the southern border,” US Northern Command said in a statement.
Approved elements for deployment include members of the Army’s Expeditionary Sustainment Command, to coordinate logistics, and the Quartermaster Field Feeding Company, to ensure troops get enough to eat in the harsh environments.
About half of the 1,115 soldiers set for deployment are attached to engineering companies, battalions and brigades and will be tasked with construction-oriented missions.
Trump’s “big, beautiful” agenda bill, which cleared the House of Representatives early Thursday morning, provides $175 billion in spending on border security – including $46.5 billion for new border wall construction.
The legislation still needs to be approved by the Senate.
Illegal border crossings from Mexico have hit historic lows since Trump took office in January.
Last month, federal agents encountered fewer than 10,000 migrants crossing the southern border illegally, marking a 93% decrease from the more than 128,000 people who streamed across last April during the Biden administration, Border Patrol statistics show.
Trump’s Day One executive order on border security ordered the US military to “defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity” of the US by repelling illegal migrants, drug smugglers and human traffickers seeking to enter the country between ports of entry.
Apart from sending more troops, Trump has also authorized the military to take control of large swaths of federal land along the southern border in order to accomplish the mission.
