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The Pentagon is sending 3,750 additional U.S. forces to the southwest border with Mexico for three months to support border agents , the Department of Defense said on Sunday.
The deployment will raise the total number of a ctive-duty forces supporting Customs and Border Protection agents there to about 4,350 , it said.
The Pentagon disclosed the official figure days after a Democratic lawmaker said about 3,500 extra troops would be deployed.
President Donald Trump
, who has portrayed the situation at the border as a crisis , was expected to talk about immigration and his proposal for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico during the annual State of the Union address on Tuesday.
The Pentagon first approved the high-profile deployment of active-duty U.S. troops to the Mexico border in October, before the November congressional elections . The move was embraced by Trump’s supporters , including fellow Republicans in Congress .
The Pentagon says the U.S. militar y will operate mobile surveillance cameras in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas , a mission scheduled to run through September 30. Some of the additional troops will also string up 150 more miles of concertina wire .
Acting Defense Secretary, Patrick Shanahan
, approved the latest deployment on January 11, according to the statement but a figure was not disclosed until Thursday, when Democratic U.S. Representative Adam Smith, chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee , said 3,500 additional troops were being sent to the southern border .
Smith
criticized senior Pentagon officials for failing to disclose the information during a hearing before his committee in Congress on the issue just two days earlier.
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