The United States will send 1,500 additional troops to its border with Mexico, a Pentagon spokesman said today, as a controversial health measure that allows for the immediate deportation of undocumented immigrants crossing the US land border nears expiration.

“At the request of the Department of Homeland Security,” the U.S. Secretary of Defense “has authorized the temporary deployment of 1,500 additional troops to augment Border Patrol efforts on the southwest border,” said Brigadier General Pat Ryder.

The 1,500 troops will begin arriving at the Mexican border on May 10.

For 90 days, they will support the border guard mainly in the matter of surveillance. “Military personnel will not be directly involved in law enforcement activities,” added Pat Ryder.

The Defense Department spokesman told reporters that even as troops are sent in, the Pentagon is looking at ways to replace active-duty personnel with people who might come from the reserve force.

A measure linked to the Covid-19 pandemic and implemented in 2020 under the Trump presidency, which allows for the immediate deportation of immigrants without visas, including potential asylum seekers, expires on May 11.

The United States fears a peak in arrivals at its borders with the lifting of this measure, known as “Title 42”.

Authorities last week announced new measures aimed at easing the journey of asylum seekers, or refugees, by setting up “management centers” in Colombia and Guatemala.