The White House on Wednesday said that the active duty troops who are being sent to the southern border ahead of the end of Title 42 next week will not be engaging migrants, but will be acting in an administrative role supporting Customs and Border Protection.
Officials said this week that approximately 1,500 active-duty troops will come from a variety of Army units and will serve for 90 days in mostly administrative and transport roles in order to free up law enforcement and Border Patrol.
It comes in preparation for the end of the Title 42 public health order on May 11. The ending of the order, which allows for the rapid expulsion of migrants at the border, is expected to be followed by a rush of migration to the border.
The move had brought opposition from some immigration doves, including Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, who called it "unacceptable."
"There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nation’s troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth," he said in a statement on Tuesday.
