五角大楼考虑向南部边境派出部队

The Pentagon is considering sending hundreds of troops to the southern border after President Donald Trump reiterated Thursday the military would be used to prevent a caravan of Central American migrants from entering the United States.

A U.S. official tells VOA the number of troops provided will depend on what capabilities are requested from the Department of Homeland Security. The troops would support border patrol agents. More than two thousand National Guard troops have already been deployed to the area.

President Trump has referred to the caravan of migrants, which is more than a 1,600 kilometers from the closest U.S. border, as a "national emergency."

"I am bringing out the military for this National Emergency. They will be stopped!," Trump wrote in a post on Twitter earlier Thursday. Trump also agreed with a border patrol labor union official that Democrats are to blame for migrants seeking refuge in the U.S.

Trump has blasted Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala for not stopping their citizens from departing for the U.S. He said Monday he would begin cutting off or reducing foreign aid to those countries and threatened last week to use military troops to close the border.