Donald Trump is considering sending 10,000 troops to the US-Mexico border as part of a huge immigration crackdown, according to a leaked internal memo.
As part of his promise to tackle the issue of illegal immigrants coming into America from the South, the newly returned President has already pledged to continue building the border wall.
But according to the new memo, Mr Trump is also now considering bolstering troop numbers along the border significantly.
The US president has already ordered 1,500 troops to the border to install barriers – though a military source claimed they would not be involved in “law enforcement”.
However, the new government memo, detailing ideas for Mr Trump’s crackdown on immigration, suggests these numbers will soon be swelled significantly with up to 10,000 troops deployed.
The Customs and Border Protection memo is dated 21 January – one day after Mr Trump’s inauguration.
It shows a plan to dispatch “10,000 soldiers” to help the agency.
The initial boost of 1,500 troops already announced, to be sent to San Diego in California and El Paso in Texas, will join the 2,500 soldiers already stationed at the border.
But the memo also reveals that US Department of Defence bases may be used as “holding facilities” for migrants waiting to be deported.
Hours after being sworn in as president, Mr Trump declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico, saying “America’s sovereignty is under attack”.
Immigration was also a key campaign promise of Mr Trump’s and he has made repeated vows to seal the border and increase enforcement.
In his first sit-down interview since returning to the White House, Mr Trump again returned to the subject yesterday.
He claimed “prisons from all over the world have been emptied out into our country”, referring to an election claim he made that a spike in illegal border crossings under the Biden administration meant thousands of convicted murderers had entered the US.
On other issues, when pressed on his decision to pardon Capitol rioters, including ones who admitted to violently attacking police officers, Mr Trump doubled down.
He said: “I said I was gonna release them, and probably very quickly. And they voted for me. I won in a landslide.”
He also made light of Joe Biden’s last-minute pre-emptive pardons of various family members, saying it was a “sad thing” the outgoing president “didn’t give himself a pardon”.
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