Washington, 2 March 2025 (dpa/MIA) – The US Department of Defense is sending more soldiers to the southern border with Mexico to curb irregular migration.

The measure is in line with US President Donald Trump's priority to "seal the border and protect the territorial integrity of the United States," said a senior Pentagon official.

Troops from the Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) and General Support Aviation Battalion were set to be deployed. US media reported that some 3,000 additional soldiers are involved.

Irregular migration through the southern border has been a challenge for the US authorities for years, with many people fleeing poverty, violence and political crises in their homeland - many of them from South American countries - choose this route to try to enter the country.

Trump's predecessor Joe Biden was able to defuse the situation somewhat in his last months in office, but he was criticized for not acting quickly enough.

Trump, who made the issue the centrepiece of his election campaign, is now pursuing a hard line on migration.

This includes not only the threat of mass deportations and the public staging of individual arrests, but also the drastic restriction of opportunities for those seeking protection in the US.

The deployment of further troops to the border is part of this, as is his order to abolish automatic citizenship for children born in the US to migrants without valid residency status.

Trump has called the influx of migrants at the southern border an "invasion" and has declared a national emergency as a basis for further measures.

Photo: MIA archive