The Pentagon has extended the deployment of 400 troops to the United States’s southern border with Mexico through the end of September, the Department of Defense confirmed Friday.
The extension comes after the Pentagon assigned 1,500 troops to the southern border in May for 90 days. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pulled 1,100 troops away from the border in August, but he extended the deployment for the remaining 400.
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“On August 24, 2023, the Secretary of Defense approved an extension of up to 400 personnel providing support to Customs and Border Protection on the Southwest border through September 30, 2023,” Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Devin Robinson told NBC News.
The Pentagon extended the stay of 400 troops along the U.S.-Mexico border until Oct. 1st, 2023.
It was the second extension for the 400 troops. The original deployment was ahead of an expected surge in migration in Texas and Arizona at the end of Title 42. However, the surge in border crossings never occurred and numbers in fact dwindled to 3,000 per day, instead of 10,000, before the expiration. It has since increased to 5,000 crossings a day, according to Customs and Border Protection.
“[The Department of Homeland Security] appreciates the extension of 400 DOD personnel who are providing support at the southwest border,” a DHS spokesperson said. “The support personnel are critical so that CBP agents and officers can get out in the field to securely, safely, and humanely manage the southwest border.”
The troops that remain are assisting CBP agents on ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support. They do not help with securing the border through front-line work.
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The influx of migrants has caused a border and migration crisis in border states and sanctuary cities such as New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. New York has seen the largest influx outside of border states. More than 100,000 migrants have flooded into the city since spring 2022.
States have also sent resources to the southern border, including National Guard units, to help protect it. Republican governors in 14 states pledged their assistance in June, sending at least 1,305 national guardsmen and 231 law enforcement personnel to help Texas’s Operation Lone Star.
