The Pentagon will continue to back up the Department of Homeland Security in protecting the border after Defense Secretary Mark Esper extended the mission through Sept. 30, 2021.
"The real change is that it will mainly be the National Guard and by unit rotations," a Pentagon spokesman told the Washington Examiner. "The National Guard will make up the bulk of the force."
Today, 2,600 active duty and 2,400 National Guard troops guard the Southern border. The extension would bring the total number of personnel down to 4,000.
"The duties to be performed by military personnel include the same categories of support as those currently being carried out along the border, including detection and monitoring, logistics, and transportation support to U.S. Customs and Border Protection," a press release from the Pentagon read.
The spokesman said National Guard personnel do not carry out law enforcement duties while on the border.
"We've seen the lowest number of illegal border crossings in many years," Trump said at a border security roundtable in Arizona alongside acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and head of the Army Corps of Engineers responsible for overseeing the construction, Lt. Gen. Todd Semonite.
The new deployments will begin at the beginning of October, with Thursdays' announcement giving National Guard units preparation time for their deployments.
"This is the most powerful and comprehensive border wall structure anywhere in the world," Trump said. "It's got technology that nobody would even believe, between sensors and cameras and everything else."
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