U.S. extends Mexico border mission until end of January

The Pentagon says U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has approved plans to extend the deployment of active-duty U.S. troops at the southern border with Mexico until Jan. 31.

The 45-day extension was requested by the Department of Homeland Security. It involves military forces that will install and repair wire barriers and provide security and transportation for border patrol agents. The troops are spread across California, Arizona and Texas.

Officials have said the number of troops will drop from about 5,400 now to roughly 4,000. The officials spoke anonymously to describe internal deliberations.

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of active-duty troops to the border in response to a caravan of Central American migrants walking north toward the U.S. Critics dismissed the deployment as a political stunt ahead of the midterm elections.

Frustration, desperation mounting for migrants

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says the San Diego sector has experienced a "slight uptick" in families entering the U.S. illegally and turning themselves in to agents since the caravan arrived in Tijuana two weeks ago.

An Associated Press video journalist witnessed more than two dozen migrants scale a fence between Mexico and the U.S. on Monday evening. Once across, entire families raised their hands before border patrol agents who arrived swiftly in white trucks, headlights glaring.

Since mid-October, thousands of Central Americans, mostly from Honduras, have travelled north through Mexico in a caravan, some walking much of the long trek.

Frustrated and exhausted after weeks of uncertainty, many migrants have become desperate since getting stuck in squalid camps in Tijuana.

Some migrants are likely to be economic refugees without a strong asylum claim, but others tell stories of receiving politically motivated death threats in a region troubled by decades of instability and violence.

Applying for asylum at a U.S. land border can take months, so if migrants enter illegally and present themselves to authorities, their cases could be heard more quickly.

U.S. officials have restricted applications through the Chaparral gate in Tijuana to between 40 and 100 per day.