Troop levels on US border 'pretty much peaked': Pentagon

Troop levels at the US-Mexico border have essentially reached their upper limit -- at least for now -- a top Pentagon official said Thursday.

Some 5,900 active-duty troops are now stationed along the border, in a contentious deployment that President Donald Trump ordered ahead of the midterm elections.

In the days before the key vote, Trump had said as many as 15,000 troops could be sent to the border, but the number seems set to stay much lower.

We have "pretty much peaked in terms of the number of people that are down there," Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told Pentagon reporters.

But he added that, since the mission officially runs through December 15, the number "can always be amended."
Their mission is to assist short-handed border patrol agents ahead of the anticipated arrival of large groups of migrants in so-called "caravans."