The Trump administration is sending at least 5,200 active-duty troops to the border this week in what officials said Monday is a necessary response to a roughly 3,500-person migrant caravan still weeks from reaching the United States. But Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, dismissed accusations that the move is motivated by politics. President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned a migrant caravan making its way from Honduras to the U.S.-Mexico border, and officials are reportedly considering a dramatic crackdown on Central Americans and asylum seekers in response. Taken together, that’s more troops deployed to the border to address a migrant caravan than there currently are in Iraq and Syria, according to The Wall Street Journal. “The president has made it clear that border security is national security,” O’Shaughnessy said.

Source: Huffington Post October 29, 2018 23:06 UTC