Donald Trump May Authorise US Soldiers To Protect Border Personnel

Donald Trump is expected to give troops the power to protect border personnel if they are attacked.

US President Donald Trump.

(File Photo: IANS/Xinhua)

US President Donald Trump is likely to give American troops on the Southwest border with Mexico the authority to intervene if border personnel are attacked by migrants, according to defence officials.

Currently, troops do not have any authority that would allow them to intervene if the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel came under attack, except in the situations where they need to act in their own self-defence.

The officials told CNN on Monday that the new authority would also allow protection of the federal property.

Thousands of soldiers at the border

There are around 5,800 to 5,900 troops assigned to the border mission.

The mission would be characterised solely as "protection of CBP" personnel, according to the officials.

The development comes as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said earlier in the day that they had started to get information from “multiple sources including individuals in the Mexican government” of potential waves or groups of individuals who were discussing an incursion into legal ports of entry in California by attempting to pass through vehicle lanes.

The Pentagon has been working for the last several days on options for troops to protect the CBP.

More than 2,000 Central American migrants arrived in the border city of Tijuana in the last few days, and about 3,000 more migrants were estimated to be in Mexicali, Mexico, another border city about 100 miles away, a UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesperson said.

(With inputs from IANS)