



The US military is preparing to send as many as 5,200 troops to the nation’s southern border ahead of a migrant caravan travelling towards the region. The latest reports arrived as an estimated 800 troops were sent to the US-Mexico border Monday, the US Department of Defence said Monday afternoon. By the end of the week, the department confirmed nearly 5,200 active duty troops would be assisting along the border with daily operations. Meanwhile, the number of migrants continuing their collective journey has decreased each day, as is typical with the 15-year tradition that normally ends with a much smaller number of asylum-seekers arriving to US ports of entry along the border. Earlier this year around 2,000 National Guard troops to the region, where about 15,000 US customs officials oversee the processing of trade, migrants and pedestrian travel daily.





The migrant group planned to set out early Monday for Niltepec, 43 miles, (70 kilometres) to the northwest in Oaxaca state. Several hundred migrants tried to cross the Suchiate River from Guatemala to Mexico en masse on Monday, but were met by ranks of Mexican federal police who blocked them from entering. The standoff on the riverbank follow a more violent confrontation that occurred on the nearby bridge over the river the night before, when migrants tossed rocks and used sticks against Mexico police. One migrant was killed Sunday night by a head wound, but the cause was unclear.









The caravan still must travel just under 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) to reach the nearest US border crossing at McAllen, Texas. The trip could be twice as long if the 4,000 or so migrants head for the Tijuana-San Diego frontier, as another caravan did earlier this year. Only about 200 in that group made it to the border.



