An additional 1,500 active-duty troops will join the 2,500 National Guards on the US-Mexico border in anticipation of an influx of migrants when the Covid-era restrictions expire on 11 May. Their assistance will free up resources so that US Customs and Border Protection can operate freely while soldiers fill gaps in ground-based detection, monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support. They will not be doing any law enforcement. Many believe further militarisation of the border is unacceptable in the middle of a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere. Deploying military personnel signals that migrants are a threat. Nothing could be further from the truth. More encounters at the Mexico border are expected as smugglers take advantage of the changes. They are already hard at work spreading disinformation that the border will be open, placing strains on the entire system. There were 7,000 daily encounters on the US southern border recently. Numbers are expected to rise in the coming weeks.