WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is considering keeping active-duty American troops on the southwestern border into January, two Defense Department officials said on Wednesday, potentially extending a deployment to confront a caravan of migrants from Central America.

The military’s border mission is currently slated to end Dec. 15, and no final decision has been made to extend it, said the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But talks about continuing it into next year come days after Border Patrol agents launched tear gas at a crowd of migrants attempting to illegally enter the United States from Tijuana, Mexico. The possible mission extension was first reported by NPR.

The roughly 5,900 American troops on the border are spread between southwestern Texas and Southern California in a constellation of small bases where they have helped set up concertina wire and other security barriers.