WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will deploy roughly 1,500 more active duty soldiers to the southern border to support President Donald Trump’s expanding crackdown on immigration. That would eventually bring the total to about 3,600 active duty troops at the border. A U.S. official said Friday that the order has been approved to send a logistics brigade from the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Liberty in North Carolina. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the deployment has not yet been publicly announced. The Pentagon has been scrambling to put in motion Trump’s executive orders signed shortly after he took office on Jan. 20.
![Some Fort Liberty soldiers will head to US-Mexico border, bringing the total to 3,600](https://cdn.socast.io/3922/sites/17/2025/02/11125659/AP25038720729157.jpg)
President Donald Trump listens during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)