By Jamie McIntyre | Washington Examiner
TRUMP ‘EXPECTS IMMEDIATE RESULTS’ AT THE BORDER: Robert Salesses may only be acting secretary of defense for a short time, but he’s acting with dispatch to carry out President Donald Trump’s executive order that “suspends the physical entry of aliens engaged in an invasion of the United States through the southern border.”
After a Monday meeting with the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commanders of the U.S. Northern Command, Transportation Command, and National Guard, Salesses established a task force to carry out “expedited implementation” of Trump’s orders to obtain “complete operational control of the southern border of the United States.”
“DOD will begin augmenting its forces at the southwest border with an additional [approximately] 1,500 ground personnel, as well as helicopters with associated crews, and intelligence analysts to support increased detection and monitoring efforts,” Salesses said in a statement from the Pentagon. The initial tranche of 1,500 additional troops will bring the total at the border to 4,000, a 60% increase in active-duty ground forces, according to the Pentagon.