CNN’s Alvarez: ‘There Are Just Between 1100-1300 [Border] Crossings a Day,’ Trump Admin. ‘Has Essentially Sealed Off the Border’

BOLDUAN: “Thousands — thousands more active duty U.S. troops are now being ordered to the southern border days after President Trump declared a national emergency at the border. The initial wave is expected to be around 1,500 troops with more troops expected to follow in the coming weeks and months. CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez has much more on this for us. She’s joining us now. Good morning, Priscilla.”
ALVAREZ: “Good morning, Kate. This is really a show of force by the Trump Administration along the U.S. southern border. There are already troops who are helping U.S. Border Patrol along the border, but this is going to be in addition to that with those 1,500 and perhaps more to follow. So what are they going to do? Well, they’re going to be focused on operational readiness, on augmenting air operations, on providing intelligence support when it comes to assessing threats, and the flow of migrants. A lot of work that can be done and is often done behind the scenes. But in addition to all of that, they are also sending military aircraft today to San Diego and to El Paso to repatriate those who are already in Border Patrol custody. That would mean those recent border crossers who can be quickly repatriated to their origin country, so they will be using military aircraft to do that. Now, the border is relatively quiet. I’m told that there are just between 1,100 to 1,300 crossings a day. That is far below when it was 6,000, 8,000, 12,000 before. So this is going to be a way to augment support along the U.S. southern border. But it also comes at a time when crossings are lower than where they’ve been before. And also, as the administration has essentially sealed off the border to asylum seekers. Kate?”