President Donald Trump has ordered 5,200 United States troops to the southern border and says he may send as many as 15,000. That's approaching the number now serving in Afghanistan and Iraq, and more than General John Pershing mustered to pursue Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa in 1916.
The troops' mission appears to be to block two caravans of between 3,600 and 7,000 Central Americans, most of whom are fleeing violence and poverty, from entering the country.
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