SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – About 500 Camp Pendleton-based Marines and sailors are being deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border as part of President Trump’s mandate to secure the southern border.
In a statement, a U.S. military official said, “As directed by U.S. Northern Command and Joint Task Force North, I Marine Expeditionary Force will deploy approximately 500 Marines and Sailors as an immediate augmentation of military active-duty forces to the Southern Border to carry out directed missions called for by the President to secure the border and protect and defend the territorial integrity of the United States.”
Just after officially taking office, Trump signed an executive order on Monday that declared a national emergency at the southern U.S. border. He then followed with a directive on Wednesday to have about 1,500 active-duty U.S. troops sent to the border to help support U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The troops are not authorized for law enforcement activities, such as conducting arrests or seizing illegal drugs, but the president said he would decide within 90 days whether to invoke the Insurrection Act at the border.
Invoking the Insurrection Act gives the president the authority under certain circumstances to deploy military and National Guard personnel, in this case "to obtain complete operational control of the southern border."
