2,100 more troops headed to the U.S.-Mexico border, Pentagon says

Acting Defense Secretary Richard Spencer has authorized the additional deployment of 1,100 active-duty troops and 1,000 Texas National Guard soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border, the Pentagon announced today. They will join some 2,500 active-duty and 2,000 National Guard troops already there, for a total force of 6,600 on the border mission. The new active-duty troops will arrive “in the next several weeks” and will provide “aerial surveillance, operational, logistical, and administrative support” to Customs and Border Patrol, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Chris Mitchell said in a statement. The increase in active-duty forces is required due to a “shortfall in volunteer National Guard personnel” conducting the same missions, Mitchell said...MORE