More U.S. troops are headed to the Mexican border to assist the Border Patrol.
The Department of Defense announced Monday that it plans to move an additional 300 troops to the California border. The troops were assigned to the Texas and Arizona borders, a spokesperson for US Northern Command tells ABC News.
The announcement was made after hundreds of migrants rushed the border in a show of force, causing the San Ysidro port of entry to close for hours on Sunday, At least 69 migrants who made it thru a hole in a border fence were arrested on the U.S. side of the border.
The decision to send more troops to the border was reached following an assessment by US Customs and Border Protection after the 500 migrants rushed the border.
The majority of the 300 troops will be Military Police units as well as engineers. There are now 5,600 troops at the southern border in support of CBP, 1,800 of those are in California.
Read the full statement from US Northern Command below:
"U.S. Northern Command continually assesses the requirements and locations of forces supporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the Southwest border. In coordination with CBP, it was determined that forces including military police, engineering and logistics units could be shifted from Texas and Arizona to support the CBP requirements in California. Approximately 300 service members have been repositioned to California over the past few days. Currently, there are approximately 5,600 total active-duty personnel supporting CBP, with approximately 2,400 in Texas, 1,400 in Arizona and 1,800 in California."