Troops From Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala Deployed To Guard Borders And Lower Migration
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — The White House has a new strategy to try to reduce the number of migrants crossing the southern border from Mexico.
The Biden administration says three Central American countries have agreed to either maintain, or increase, the number of troops guarding their borders.
The White House says Mexico will keep 10,000 troops activated. Honduras sent 7,000 police and troops to disperse a caravan of migrants. And Guatemala has sent 1,500 police and military to its border with Honduras to reduce crossings.
On Monday, Mexico's Foreign Affairs ministry said, "Mexico will maintain the existing deployment of federal forces in the its border area, with the objective of enforcing its own immigration legislation, to attend to migrants, mainly unaccompanied minors, and to combat the trafficking of people."
The agreement with the countries comes as the U.S. saw a record number of unaccompanied children attempting to cross the border in March, and the largest number of Border Patrol encounters overall with migrants on the southern border — just under 170,000 — since March 2001.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection either caught or stopped some 172,000 people trying to cross the border in March.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)