US Defense Secretary James Matisse has approved the deployment of US troops and equipment on the country's border with Mexico to prevent a US-bound convoy of immigrants, US officials said on Friday.
The Pentagon's move to strengthen the position of President Donald Trump anti-immigrant to his country.
The officials, who asked not to be named, said Matisse's ratification did not include specific troop numbers, which will be determined later, Reuters reported.
The US Department of Defense had announced earlier, sending hundreds of troops to the border with Mexico.
Trump said on Thursday he was "moving the army" to protect the US border as a convoy of Central American immigrants continues to travel through Mexico en route to the United States.
"The army has moved for this national emergency, they will be stopped," Trump said on Twitter.
Thousands of men, women and children seeking to escape violence, poverty and corruption in their countries continued their arduous journey towards the American border.
People marched under the moonlight on Thursday night from the Mapestepic region near the Guatemalan border in southern Mexico.
An official in the town said 5,300 immigrants were in Mapapastek on Wednesday night, while another group of 1,000 began a similar flight from Guatemala.
