Mexico now has some 15,000 troops deployed to its northern border with the U.S. to try to help control the flow of migrants headed north, a top official revealed Monday.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said the personnel is a mix of army units and the country’s national guard, and he acknowledged they are detaining migrants preparing to cross into the U.S.
“We simply detain them and turn them over to the authorities,” he said, according to Agence France Presse, a news wire service.
The detentions are a change in tactics for Mexico, which is moving to try to placate President Trump. Mr. Trump had threatened to impose crippling tariffs on Mexico unless that country did more to stop the 4,000 to 5,000 Central American migrants crossing its territory each day, en route to the U.S.
Mexico committed to deploying personnel to its southern border and to holding onto some Central American migrants while their immigration cases proceed in U.S. courts.
But the effort to prevent people at the point of crossing into the U.S. was not part of the publicly disclosed agreement.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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