The Pentagon is sending up to 5,050 additional troops to the U.S.-Mexico border even as unlawful border crossings have sharply fallen in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a Stryker brigade combat team (SBCT) and a general support aviation battalion to \u201cbolster military support in securing the U.S. \u2013 Mexico border,\u201d Pentagon press secretary Sean Parnell said in a statement Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each SBCT consists of approximately 4,400 soldiers, while the aviation battalion has roughly 650 troops.<\/p>\n
The forces will arrive along the nearly 2,000-mile border in the coming weeks, the official added. They did not say where the troops would be sent specifically.<\/p>\n
This deployment comes after President Trump, immediately upon entering office in January, declared a national emergency at the southern border and signed a number\u00a0of executive orders<\/a>\u00a0intended to crack down on illegal crossings. As part of the effort, he has turned to the military to bolster security in the region, fly migrants out of the United States and house them at bases.<\/p>\n Trump had already ordered 1,600 Marines to the border in January, joining 2,500 service members already there prior to the new Trump administration.<\/p>\n The newest deployment could swell the number of service members on the ground at the border to just less than 10,000.<\/p>\n The recent deployments come as illegal crossings at the southern border are down 94 percent from the same period last year, Mike Banks, chief of the Border Patrol, told\u00a0CBS News<\/a>\u00a0last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n