Donald Trump to deploy National Guard to the Mexican border 'as soon as tonight'

The dispatch of troops could lead to another standoff over immigration and border security between the US and Mexico

Donald Trump will deploy National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border as soon as tonight, the Secretary of Homeland Security has said.

Over the past few days, Mr Trump has been ramping up his rhetoric on immigration and border security, calling on Congress to change the US’s “very weak” border laws.

He also said he wanted to send the military to guard the border “until we can have a wall and proper security” – plans that will now come to fruition.

“The president has directed that the Department of Defence and the Department of Homeland Security work together with our governors to deploy the National Guard to our southwest border,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, speaking at the White House. ”The president will be signing a proclamation to that effect today.”

Ms Nielson added that the troops would be assisting the US Border Patrol, which currently guards the border, but would not be involved in enforcement.

She did not provide information on how many troops would be deployed, how long their deployment will last and how much it will cost.

Instead, echoing Mr Trump, she railed against the country’s current immigration laws, saying the current system “rewards bad behaviour” and “it’s time to act”.

The administration has drafted legislation and will ask Congress to provide the legal authority and resources to address “this crisis at our borders”, Ms Nielson said.

Prior to the announcement, the president met with Ms Nielson, Defence Secretary James Mattis and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to discuss border issues.

Mr Sessions said he would soon be announcing additional Justice Department “initiatives to restore legality to the southern border”.

Both Barack Obama and George W Bush sent troops to the border during their presidencies. But it is unclear why Border Patrol agents would need help from the Defence Department right now, given that illegal border crossings are at the lowest level in decades, the Washington Post reported.

An adviser who speaks frequently with Mr Trump told the newspaper that the president is worried about losing support from his political base. He has not yet received enough funding from Congress to finance his border wall and immigration policies.

This week, Mr Trump demanded that a caravan of roughly 1,000 migrants, most of whom fled Honduras, be prevented from entering the US through Mexico. He claimed that Mexico had “absolute power” to keep them from entering the US illegally. Pueblo Sin Fronteras, a migrants rights group that organised the journey, said the caravan’s destination was not the US border.

Last month, Mr Trump grudgingly signed a massive budget bill that allocated $1.6bn for border security this year, even though the president at one point wanted $25bn to fully fund the construction of his border wall.

Mr Trump had originally said the wall would be paid for by Mexico. The president has now reportedly floated the idea of getting the Pentagon to pay for it since the department received a huge boost in funding under the budget measure.

The deployment of troops could lead to another standoff over immigration and border security between the US and Mexico.

Before the announcement, the Mexican government had formally asked for clarification on Mr Trump’s statements saying he planned to deploy troops to the border.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray said in a tweet that “the Mexican government will define its reaction on the basis of that clarification, and always in defence of our sovereignty and national interests.”