Trump sends 1,500 troops to Mexican border with plans to up army presence to 10,000 in immigration crackdown

24 January 2025, 00:50 | Updated: 24 January 2025, 07:37

Donald Trump has sent 1,500 additional troops to the US-Mexico border with plans to increase the US military presence to 10,000 troops in a severe immigration crackdown.

The new president instructed government agencies to "immediately repel, repatriate, and remove" undocumented immigrants in plans to quell what he has termed an ‘invasion’ of immigrants from Mexico.

1,500 active-duty troops have been sent to the border, including 500 members of the Marine Corps from the US navy.

They join 2,500 soldiers already stationed there, and Trump plans to up the US military presence to 10,000 troops, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) briefing document obtained by The Washington Post.

Border agents have reportedly been told to block migrants from entering the US, while others will help the Department of Homeland Security in using military planes to deport migrants that have already been arrested.

More than 5,000 migrants are currently being held by the CBP. On Trump’s first full day as president, about 800 migrants were arrested along the US-Mexico border, lower than the daily average of 1,300 in the week before Trump’s inauguration.

Read more: 'All will be revealed': Trump orders last JFK assassination files to be released

Read more: Trump's 'blatantly unconstitutional' order to end automatic birthright citizenship blocked by judge

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that Trump signed the order, which forms part of his hardline immigration policy that he has kicked off by signing a number of executive orders in his first days as president.

"This is something President Trump campaigned on. The American people have been waiting for such a time as this for our Department of Defense to actually take homeland security seriously.

“This is the number one priority of the American people and the president is already delivering on that," Leavitt said.

Leavitt said the goal is "securing the southern border and deporting illegal immigrants from this country".

"President Trump is sending a very strong message to people around this world: if you are thinking about breaking the laws of the United States of America you will be returned home, you will be arrested and you will be prosecuted. Do not come," she told ABC News.

Earlier, Leavitt told conservative media outlet Newsmax that officials have already "arrested nearly 500" undocumented people inside the US, adding "they will be sent home".

Read more: Trump says January 6 attacks on police officers were 'very minor incidents' in first major interview since inauguration

Stephen Miller, a top Trump adviser, met Senate Republicans earlier to update them on plans for deportations and reinstating Title 42, a controversial policy that was put in place during the coronavirus pandemic to stop border crossings.

Trump has already declared a national emergency at the southern border, and tried to put an end to birthright citizenship - an order which has already been blocked in court, and prompted a number of lawsuits from pregnant mothers and immigration charities.

President Donald Trump rolled out his blueprint to beef up security at the southern border in a series of executive orders that began taking effect soon after his inauguration on Monday.

The move makes good on his defining political promise to crack down on immigration and marks another wild swing in White House policy on the divisive issue.

Trump sends the army to the Mexican border

Some of the orders revive priorities from his first administration that his predecessor had rolled back, including forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico and finishing the border wall.

Others launched sweeping new strategies, like an effort to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in America and ending the use of a Biden-era app used by nearly a million migrants to enter America.

The actual execution of such a far-reaching immigration agenda is certain to face legal and logistical challenges.

But in a concrete sign of how the changes quickly played out, migrants who had appointments to enter the US using the CBP One app saw them cancelled minutes after Trump was sworn in, and Mexico agreed to allow people seeking US asylum to remain south of the American border while awaiting their court cases.