WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon has unveiled thousands of troops to tackle a convoy of thousands of Central American migrants on their way to the United States across the border with Mexico.
A US official told Reuters on Wednesday, asking not to be named, that the Pentagon will deploy 7,000 troops on the border with Mexico if needed, stressing that this number is preliminary and can change.
A US general confirmed on Tuesday that his country planned to deploy more than 5,200 troops on the border with Mexico, adding that the number of troops on the border would rise to other levels, but declined to give any details.
A second convoy of immigrants of about 2,000 people from Central America resumed their advance in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas after crossing the river separating Guatemala and Mexico on Tuesday.
Like the immigrants in the first convoy, participants in this second convoy, most of them from Honduras, rejected the assistance plan presented to them by the Mexican President.
The plan includes medical coverage, education and temporary work for their children, provided that they stop and apply for asylum in the states of Chiapas and Ohaka.
Migrants, including women and children, arrived Tuesday in Tapachula, where they spent the night, after crossing 25 kilometers.
The Mexican Interior Ministry announced the arrest of Honduran migrants wanted in their country, one for murder and the other for drug trafficking, and were returned to Honduras in a plane.
The first convoy of about 4,000 people, according to the organization "Pueblos Sine Frontieras" non-governmental, on Tuesday, to the town of Juchitan in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Migrants spent the night in tents set up in an abandoned bus stop, still bearing the effects of the 8.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the city on 7 September 2017.
Migrants and human rights defenders accompanying the convoy called for buses to arrive in Mexico City at a distance of 730 kilometers, where they want to apply for temporary residence before resuming their journey to the United States.
US President Donald Trump warned of an "invasion" of the United States and said on Monday night: "If they ask for asylum, we will detain them until their cases are examined.
