President Donald Trump says as many as 15,000 U.S. troops could go to the Mexican border to stop caravans of Central American migrants, many of whom are seeking asylum, from crossing into the United States.

“It’s a dangerous group of people,” the president said of the migrants after earlier calling them “very bad thugs and gang members.”

But one woman who is from El Salvador and is part of the latest group headed north said she wants Trump to know that she and the others are not “delinquents.”

Trump’s figure of 15,000 is far more than the roughly 5,200 active duty soldiers the Pentagon is sending to the border, along with the 2,100 National Guardsmen already there. U.S. Defense Department officials have told VOA that about 2,000 additional active duty troops will be placed on standby to help the active duty troops already assigned to the border.

This would make the total number of troops deployed to the U.S. southern border more than the number of Americans fighting terror groups in Iraq and Syria. About 14,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Afghanistan

and find jobs,” she said.

Trump’s figure of 15,000 is far more than the roughly 5,200 active duty soldiers the Pentagon is sending to the border, along with the 2,100 National Guardsmen already there. U.S. Defense Department officials have told VOA that about 2,000 additional active duty troops will be placed on standby to help the active duty troops already assigned to the border.

This would make the total number of troops deployed to the U.S. southern border more than the number of Americans fighting terror groups in Iraq and Syria. About 14,000 U.S. troops are deployed in Afghanistan.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, denied the deployment of active duty troops to the border is a political stunt to help Republicans in next week’s midterm elections. (VOA)