The US is to send an additional 2,000 troops to its border with Mexico, the Pentagon has announced. It will bring the total number of troops stationed on the southern border to about 4,300. The Pentagon said the soldiers would help border-patrol agents, carry out surveillance work and install miles of razor wire.
The Pentagon said on Monday it is sending 5,200 troops, some armed, to the Southwest border this week in an extraordinary military operation to stop Central American migrants traveling north in two caravans that were still hundreds of miles from the U.S. The number of troops is more than double the 2,000 who are in Syria fighting the Islamic State group.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has cancelled next week's trip to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump. His decision comes a day after the new US president unveiled his plan to build a wall along the Mexico-US border and insisted the US would recoup the costs for the barrier from Mexico, which has strongly objected.